Positioning the Legal Profession for Climate Change

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Feb 14, 2018, 08:40 ET

LAKE OSWEGO, Ore., Feb. 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The biggest practice area coming to the legal profession in the next decade is climate change. From insurance and property losses due to sea level rise and superstorms, to business opportunities in building a renewable and sustainable economy, climate change is going to alter how the law works—all over the world.

Centric Law, a climate change legal consulting practice, has launched operations as a special division of the Rose Law Firm, seeking to help lawyers and their clients position themselves for this coming wave of change.

Dr. Sean Munger, a practicing attorney (licensed in Oregon) and academic with a background in the history of climate change, is the principal behind Centric Law. Dr. Munger seeks to help business clients, law firms and the legal profession understand and manage the risks and opportunities they face as a result of climate change. Centric Law's purpose is to help the legal community build the framework for dealing with a phenomenon that will affect everything, in every economic sector and every traditional legal practice area.

David Houle, globally known futurist who has been referred to as "the CEO's futurist" for his advice to Fortune 500 companies, recognizes the importance and opportunity of Centric Law's niche. "It is clear to me that the legal profession is facing a new and potentially huge new practice," says Houle, the co-founder of This Spaceship Earth, a global non-profit facing climate change. "The legal profession is based upon precedent and there is no precedent in human history of dealing with climate change. Those law firms that get out in front of this explosive new field will be leaders already when people, companies and cities are confronted with painful and even catastrophic losses due to such things as sea level rise, pollution, water issues, drought and basically a new physical reality."

Dr. Munger offers the services of Centric Law to law firms and their clients who recognize the tremendous value in being the "first movers" in the lucrative practice of climate change. In addition to facilitating strategic planning at the law firm and corporate level and counseling clients on new business models adapted for a climate-changed future, Centric Law can also assist clients with more traditional legal matters that fit into the context of climate change—like property transactions in SLR (sea level rise) areas, insurance issues and financial disclosures. As the legal landscape changes in unpredictable ways in response to climate change, clients need flexible, forward-thinking, cutting edge advisers who understand the broader picture. Centric Law aims to provide that advice.

Centric Law is an arm of the Rose Law Firm, a boutique business law firm that offers big firm services with small firm service. For more information visit www.centriclaw.com.
For Dr. Munger's bio, background and experience: http://centriclaw.com/sean-munger/
About David Houle, quoted in this article: https://davidhoule.com/