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Rebecca Perlman

Rebecca Perlman

Partner

Rebecca is a corporate lawyer, specialising in ESG, sustainable investment and impact finance. She is Head of ESG for the UK, US & EMEA and she leads the firm's global Impact Investment Practice.

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Experience

Rebecca advises clients on matters relating to ESG-related regulation, soft law standards and voluntary compliance frameworks, ESG market disclosure and reporting, and issues regarding corporate purpose, including those relating to mission-driven organisations such as B Corps.

She also helps clients with ESG-related risk management, stakeholder engagement and corporate sustainability strategy, and she frequently advises on ESG issues in the context of transactions. She has extensive experience advising on domestic and international impact investment transactions in particular, including those involving registered charities and other regulated mission-driven entities. 

Rebecca has been recognised in NatWest's WISE100 list of the UK's most influential women in impact investment and in The Lawyer’s Hot 100 as “one of HSF’s most talented lawyers” and “a star pushing HSF forward in the ESG space”. She is one of only eight lawyers globally to be ranked as a leading advisor for ESG Risk by Chambers Global. Rebecca is listed as a Next Generation Partner by The Legal 500 rankings, in which she is recommended for “providing a stellar service, with advice that is commercial, practical and technically excellent” and for “excellence in propelling the work of her clients”. She is also ranked by Chambers UK, with one client describing her as "the single most impressive solicitor" they "have ever worked with".

Rebecca has previously worked in the public and third sectors, having spent time on secondment with the UK’s National Council for Civil Liberties and with the Government of Sierra Leone, where she advised on the country’s response to the 2014 Ebola crisis. 

Rebecca chairs The Big Issue Invest Trust and is a non-executive director of the Impact Investing Institute and the UN Refugee Agency’s UK charity. She is also an expert advisor to the CFA's Impact and Investing Panel. 

Background

Rebecca studied Modern History at the University of Oxford, after which she completed her law conversion in London.

She holds a range of board and committee positions:

  • Non-executive Director and Member of the Finance, Risk & Audit Committee, Impact Investing Institute 
  • Non-executive Director, UK for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR)
  • Chair of the Board, Big Issue Invest Trust, The Big Issue Group
  • Advisory Committee Member, London Impact Investing Network
  • Expert Advisor, CFA Impact and Investing Panel
  • Member, Charity Law Association of England and Wales

 

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26 January 2023

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