Maria Farrapeira / ESG Lawyer/ Global Alliance of Impact Lawyers Likes Share
May 8, 2025
AUTHOR Inside Practice
Ahead of Legal ESG Latin America this week, Pam Cone sits down with Maria Laura Farrapeira, General Counsel at AB Mauri in Latin America. She shares with us her journey to becoming General Counsel at a global company, her greatest ESG challenge, the role of lawyers in tacking sustainability, and what gives her hope for the future. You won’t want to miss this conversation.
There are moments in the evolution of business where two previously distinct domains collide with such force that they reshape the operating landscape for an entire generation of leaders. The convergence of geopolitics and ESG is one of those moments.
For the past several years, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria represented a clear, forward-moving consensus. That consensus has fractured. We have entered "The ESG Reset" - a fundamental reframing of the landscape driven by a potent mix of political whiplash, volatile investor sentiment, and persistent geopolitical crises.
The past year has shifted artificial intelligence in the legal sector from a theoretical "what if" to an urgent "what now." The initial excitement of generative AI has given way to the hard, complex realities of implementation, risk, client pressure, and a tangible fear of being left behind. We are no longer just "piloting" AI. We are in a full-scale race to integrate it, govern it, and prove its value.
The legal profession is standing at a new crossroads. Forces that once moved incrementally - client expectations, regulatory shifts, technology adoption, and firm culture are now accelerating in parallel. The cumulative effect is profound: law firms are being asked to reinvent how they serve clients, how they uphold responsibility in society, and how they organise themselves internally.
