Dentons has appointed Hogan Lovells’ global sustainability head as its first-ever global environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy leader.  

Aragon St-Charles joins the global firm after six years working in Hogan Lovells’ Tokyo office, where he held the dual roles of global sustainability head and operations lead for the Asia Pacific region. He also served as co-chair of the Tokyo office’s responsible business committee, a role that saw him lead several ESG initiatives within Japan related to community investment and diversity and inclusion, among others. 

In his new role at Dentons, St-Charles will collaborate closely with London-based environment and societal partner Stephen Shergold, who chairs the firm’s global ESG steering committee, to design the firm’s global ESG strategy and deliver ESG-related products and services for Dentons clients.

The firm said St-Charles’ particular expertise in APAC would be ‘critical’ to giving it a unique perspective on the ESG challenges and opportunities in the region. 

Joe Andrew, Dentons’ global chairman, said St-Charles’ approach to ESG strategy will also allow the firm to differentiate itself from “other law firms who put ESG either into their marketing department or their charitable and pro bono activities”. 

“Aragon’s impressive resume and deep acumen in the ESG space will help distinguish Dentons as a leader and innovator in the global ESG marketplace,” he said. 

“Investing in ESG is a key tenet of our business strategy, and I am excited to get to work with him and to transform how Dentons thinks about ESG so that we can drive meaningful change in the legal profession and business community.”

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Prior to joining Hogan Lovells in 2016, St-Charles served as a lateral attorney recruitment manager at Morrison & Foerster in Tokyo. Before that, he spent almost a decade working in senior operations and human resources roles across professional services firms in Japan. 

“I look forward to leveraging my experience of designing and implementing key ESG programs to embed sustainability into Dentons’ core functions and to positively impact our clients’ sustainability goals,” St-Charles said. 

Susan Bright, global managing partner for diversity and inclusion at Hogan Lovells, wished him well in his new role. 

“Aragon has been a great colleague, contributing to the firm in many ways over the years. We wish him well with the next stage of his career," she said. 

Following St-Charles' departure, Hogan Lovells' global sustainability efforts will be overseen by Bright alongside Marion Palmer, a senior adviser for sustainability policy and strategy. The firm will be looking to appoint a new sustainability head to replace St-Charles in the future. 

A number of other international firms have ramped up their ESG efforts in the last year as the movement becomes increasingly important to their clients. Last month, Latham & Watkins hired partners Sarah Fortt and Betty Huber from Davis Polk and Vinson & Elkins to to lead its ESG practice in the US, while in November New York firm Debevoise & Plimpton hired sustainability expert Ulysses Smith as its first senior ESG adviser. 

Last October, US firm Greenspoon Marder announced it had formed an affiliate specialising in ESG to advise public and private companies as well as investment firms on their ESG-related operations.