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EU Sustainability Developments Unpacked

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Susan Mac Cormac, Jakob Tybus and Rachel Davidson Raycraft published, "EU Sustainability Developments Unpacked" in Harvard Law...

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Susan Mac Cormac, Jakob Tybus and Rachel Davidson Raycraft published, <a href="https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2025/12/08/eu-sustainability-developments-unpacked/">"EU Sustainability Developments Unpacked" in Harvard Law School's Forum on Corporate Governance</a>. In the article, the authors explain the European Parliament’s 2025 shift toward simplifying EU sustainability rules by narrowing the scope of both the CSRD and CSDDD. These developments mark a political pivot from expansion to consolidation, emphasizing proportionality, competitiveness, and alignment with existing international standards.Read the <a href="https://media2.mofo.com/v3/assets/blt5775cc69c999c255/blt1a509687b04df332/69370c72b48b45a66e3fe62c/251117-eu-sustainability-developments-unpacked-european-parliament.pdf" target="_blank">full article</a>.

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Susan (“Suz”) co-chairs the Sustainability + Corporate Responsibility and Social Enterprise + Impact Investing practices. Her practice focuses on late-stage financings, secondaries, and other corporate transactions for investors, such as SoftBank and Temasek, and on investments for some of the top investors dedicated to impact, from “impact first” foundations to family offices to private equity funds. She co-led the drafting group for the first of the new corporate forms (the Social Purpose Corporation in California), has created hybrid/tandem corporate structures and crafted debt and equity instruments that blend impact with traditional financial terms, and has used corporate law to develop creative capital market solutions to pressing environmental problems. She also advises the boards of public and private companies on corporate governance and fiduciary duties as applied to sustainability and climate change.She was named a California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (CLAY) in 2012 and 2016 by Daily Journal and the Most Innovative Lawyer in North America in 2015 by the Financial Times.Leading Business AdvisorA powerhouse negotiator, clients note that “you cannot get a better corporate counsel” and that Suz “understands the big picture, could not be more responsive, and understands the business” (The Legal 500 US). She has extensive experience providing corporate and finance advice to companies and investors in connection with growth equity financings and secondaries, with particular experience in late-stage investments that have come to rival traditional strategic acquisitions in size and significance. Her experience includes leading some of the highest-profile late-stage investments over the past few years, including notable transactions for SoftBank Group (in the two largest private tender offers in history) in its $7.7 billion investment in Uber, $4.4 billion investment in WeWork, further $10 billion investment in WeWork, $1 billion investment in SoFi, and $250 million investment in Kabbage. She has also advised Temasek on its $800 million investment in Verily Life Sciences, Intel on its equity investment in Cloudera, and each of Fortress, TPG Rise, Vision Ridge Partners, Generation Investment Management, and Pontifax AgTech in numerous mid- to late-stage investments in clean technology, sustainability, education, food, and agriculture technology.Social Enterprise and Impact InvestingSuz is the go-to legal resource for social enterprises (for-profit and non-profit companies focused on social or environmental purpose), impact investors (investors interested in social or environmental returns), and mainstream companies developing environmental, social, and corporate governance policies. With deep expertise in the impact investing model, institutional investors exploring the space turn to her for creative solutions and her ability to structure both investments and companies to emphasize impact and returns.She represents a wide range of investors who are focused on impact, from foundations like the Gates Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, and The Rockefeller Foundation, to family offices like Armonia, Cornerstone Capital, Emerson Collective, New Island Capital, and Omidyar Network, to private equity funds like Goldman Sachs, TPG Rise, Vision Ridge Partners, and Generation Investment Management, in their equity investments in companies and projects that are focused on generating impact and returns for investors. She has deep experience and expertise ensuring energy, sustainability, and other investments have positive impact through the use of new corporate forms, hybrid or “tandem” structures with non-profits and for-profits, and alternative debt and equity instruments.Notable work in this space includes the establishment of a tandem structure, The Carbon Endowment, to retire coal assets at scale while securing a revenue stream for community reinvestment and job training in coal communities. Suz also advised on the structuring of Common Sense Growth as an extension of the non-profit Common Sense Media (to invest in companies that address issues related to children, education, and technology), the establishment of a fund for TPG Rise to provide debt financing to Echoing Green fellows, the spin-out of PRX from Public Radio International (to generate new revenue flows up to the non-profit), the establishment of a for-profit joint venture with non-profit Medicines360 (to allow the non-profit to distribute its healthcare products to women in the developing world), and the structuring of a for-profit evergreen fund that allows The Nature Conservancy to aggregate return-seeking and donor capital in order to invest in preserving our natural resources. She has also advised numerous clients on converting to a public benefit corporation or social purpose corporation model (which requires balancing traditional fiduciary duties against a social or environmental purpose), including This American Life, Revolution Foods, Rise Labs, and Beneficial State Bancorp.Suz also regularly advises boards of directors of private and public companies, special committees, and CEOs on corporate governance, particularly the intersection of fiduciary duties with sustainability, and focuses on environmental, social, and governance issues.Unmatched Cleantech and Renewable Energy ExperienceIn addition to founding and chairing the firm’s Social Enterprise and Impact Investing Group, Suz serves as Chair of Morrison & Foerster’s Energy Group and has extensive experience representing start-up to late stage private companies in the clean technology or sustainability space. She provides corporate and finance advice in connection with equity and debt financings, mergers, acquisitions, asset purchases and sales, reorganizations, and joint ventures. She has experience working with renewable energy start-up companies and renewable energy developers in the solar, wind, and biofuels industries. Suz has assisted renewable energy start up companies with raising venture capital and has advised renewable energy developers on project acquisitions.Suz’s representative renewable energy, cleantech, sustainable, and social enterprise clients include Anaergia, Change.org, EDF Renewables, E.ON, Etsy, First Look, OneSun, Planet Labs, Rising Sun Energy, RSF Social Finance, SustainBio, Trelys, Inc., Wikipedia, and Xpansiv.Board Activity and Thought LeadershipMs. Mac Cormac was a founding board member of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), is a member of the board of directors of Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), the Ceres President’s Council, and the Earth Genome Project, and is an advising board member of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy’s Strategic Investor Initiative.She has joined the faculty (teaching on the intersection of sustainability and fiduciary duties) at both the Stanford Director’s College and the Northwestern Corporate Counsel Institute and is an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley School of Law, teaching a course on Social Enterprise.

Susan Mac Cormac

Partner

Jakob is counsel at Morrison Foerster’s German office in Berlin and a member of our Corporate, Compliance, and Investigations team with a focus on corporate compliance and internal investigations. He advises both foreign and domestic clients on all areas of corporate law.Jakob advises clients in compliance with legal matters, internal investigations, and corporate governance and assists clients in pursuing and defending damages claims arising out of compliance failures. He also advises clients on day-to-day business as well as on business transactions.Besides, Jakob advises on Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) related topics. For example, this includes advisory work on Germany’s Supply Chain Due Diligence Act. He also advises on ESG requirements deriving from the law of the European Union (SFDR, CSRD, NFRD, and draft CSDDD).Jakob holds an LL.M. from the University of Cambridge, UK and spent a semester at Harvard Law School as a visiting researcher. He earned his Dr. title from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.<h5>Representative Experience</h5><ul><li>Conducting an investigation on behalf of Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen regarding equity trades around dividend date</li><li>Advising Daimler AG regarding diesel emissions</li><li>Representing a German bank in court proceedings to pursue damages arising out of noncompliance with tax obligations</li><li>Investigating tax structured transactions on behalf of a German bank</li><li>Advising a German bank in pursuing damages claims against several former directors and related D&O insurance topics</li><li>Providing corporate advice to a retail consumer cooperative regarding the foundation of a joint venture with a major German trade company</li><li>Assessing board liability claims for various DAX 30 subsidiaries</li><li>Providing ongoing corporate advice to U.S. investors regarding investments in German companies</li></ul>

Dr. Jakob Tybus ist Counsel des deutschen Büros von Morrison Foerster in Berlin und Mitglied unseres Corporate, Compliance und Investigations Teams mit einem Schwerpunkt im Bereich Corporate Compliance und internen Untersuchungen. Er berät zudem nationale und internationale Mandanten im Bereich des Personen-, Kapitalgesellschafts- sowie Konzernrechts.Im Rahmen seiner Compliance-Tätigkeit berät Jakob Tybus Mandanten insbesondere zu deutschen und US-amerikanischen Compliance-Anforderungen und Auswirkungen des Steuerrechts auf Transaktionen im Bankenbereich. Zu seiner Compliance-Beratung gehört u.a. die Durchführung interner Untersuchungen bei konkreten Verdachtsfällen im In- und Ausland, auch im Zusammenhang mit staatsanwaltschaftlichen Ermittlungen, die Durchführung verdachtsunabhängiger Compliance-Reviews sowie die Durchsetzung von Schadensersatzansprüchen bei Nichteinhaltung von Compliance-Anforderungen. In diesem Zusammenhang führt Dr. Jakob Tybus für Mandanten auch Verfahren vor staatlichen Gerichten und Schiedsgerichten und berät zu D&O-Versicherungsthemen.Außerdem berät Jakob Tybus zu Compliance- und Corporate Governance-Themen sowie Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance („ESG“). Dazu gehört beispielsweise die Beratung zum deutschen Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz. Er berät auch zu ESG-Anforderungen, die sich aus dem Recht der EU ergeben (SFDR, CSRD, NFRD, Entwurf der CSDDD).Zusätzlich berät er deutsche und internationale Mandanten bei nationalen und grenzüberschreitenden VC-Investments und zu Fragen des Gesellschaftsrechts.Dr. Jakob Tybus hat seinen LL.M. an der University of Cambridge erworben und verbrachte einen Forschungsaufenthalt als Visiting Researcher an der Harvard School of Law. Seinen Dr. Titel erwarb er an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Vor seinem Eintritt bei Morrison Foerster im Jahr 2019 arbeitete er als Rechtsanwalt in einer internationalen Wirtschaftskanzlei in Berlin.<h4>Referenzen</h4><ul><li>Untersuchungen für die Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen zu Aktiengeschäften in Nähe des Dividendenstichtags und steuerrechtlich strukturierten Transaktionen</li><li>Beratung der Daimler AG im Zusammenhang mit Diesel-Emissionen</li><li>Untersuchung für eine Landesbank zu steuerlich strukturierten Transaktionen</li><li>Vertretung einer Landesbank bei der außergerichtlichen und schiedsgerichtlichen Geltendmachung und Durchsetzung von Organhaftungsansprüchen und Beratung zu Fragen der D&O Versicherung</li><li>Gerichtliche Vertretung einer Landesbank in Schadensersatzprozessen wegen Nichteinhaltung steuerrechtlicher Vorschriften</li><li>Gesellschaftsrechtliche Beratung einer Einzelhandelskonsumgenossenschaft bei der Gründung eines Joint Venture mit einem großen deutschen Handelskonzern</li><li>Prüfung von Organhaftungsansprüchen für diverse Tochtergesellschaften von DAX 30 Unternehmen</li><li>Laufende Beratung U.S.-amerikanischer Investoren bei der Beteiligung an deutschen Gesellschaften</li></ul>

Jakob Tybus

Counsel

Rachel Davidson Raycraft is an associate in the Litigation Department of Morrison Foerster’s Washington, D.C., office.Rachel has particular experience in corruption prevention and compliance. Prior to joining the firm, Rachel worked as an anti-corruption consultant at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Corruption and Economic Crime Branch, where she supported the implementation and management of global anti-corruption initiatives and assisted state parties in meeting their obligations under the United Nations Convention against Corruption. Rachel also served as a Fellow with the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Transparency and Anti‑Corruption. After graduating from law school, Rachel clerked for the Honorable Judge Bernard A. Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.During law school, Rachel was a legal intern with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, Fraud Section, and worked as a summer associate at Morrison Foerster.Rachel received her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where she was an editor for the Virginia Journal of International Law, president of the Public Interest Law Association, and a Human Rights Program coordinator.Rachel received her M.P.P. from the University of Virginia Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, where she was a member of the Public Policy Global Honor Society. Rachel graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Lafayette College with her B.A. in government & law and international affairs.