Matthew Townsend

Practice Areas

Matt is co-head of the International Environmental, Climate and Regulatory Law Group at Allen & Overy and one of the founders of the firm’s Global ESG Group. He also co-heads the International Trade Group. Matt advises on a wide range of regulatory and compliance matters including sustainability and ESG; climate transition programmes; decarbonisation; environmental risk management; product compliance and safety; carbon pricing/trading; corporate reporting and disclosure; governance and risk management; international trade law; sanctions and export controls. He has worked extensively with clients to develop compliance programmes across a broad range of regulatory and risk areas.

Matt has practised in environmental and climate law for almost 30 years and has been recognised as a leading practitioner in his field for many years. He is a regular commentator on new and emerging developments.

Matt works with major international clients across jurisdictions and in multiple sectors including financial services, energy, industrials, chemicals, technology and many more.

He is widely recognised as one of Europe’s leading regulatory compliance lawyers.