Matthew Townsend
Matthew Townsend
Co-Head & Co Founder of Allen & Overy ESG Group
Matt Townsend is Co-Head of the Global Environmental, Climate and Regulatory Law Group at Allen & Overy and one of the founders of the firm’s ESG Group.
Matt has advised clients on ESG for over 25 years with a particular focus on environmental, health and safety, and climate change together with broader risk governance areas including ABAC, sanctions and corporate compliance programmes. He advises on these issues across the full range of corporate and capital and debt market transactions and provides many clients with advisory support. Most recently, he has been working with clients on assessing the emerging ESG regulatory landscape and assisting to develop ESG compliance programmes. He is also supporting clients in areas such as ESG disclosure and reporting, ESG related litigation, climate programmes and the impact of the EU’s Green Deal.
He is a member of the FLMC’s ESG Working Group, the City of London Law Society’s environmental working group and UKELA, a member of an Advisory Board to the EBRD on ESG guidelines for companies in the CEE region, member of the PMLC’s ESG Working Group, advising Editor of Environmental Liability journal and a member of the Executive Committee of the Legal Sustainability Alliance.
Matt is widely recognised as one of Europe’s leading regulatory compliance lawyers.
