Page 12 - Quarterly Q1-Q2 2018

QUARTERLY Q/1–Q/2 – 2018
FEATURED D&I ALUMNA RAIJA-LEENA OJANEN
Earth Needs Good Lawyers
P12 As of January 2018, our greatly respected ex-partner Raija-Leena Ojanen has been working as the legal advisor for WWF. At D&I, Raija was a true role model for her uncompromising dedication to the highest level of professional service.
Q: What made you first want to work for WWF?
The idea of working for an environmental organisation slowly grew upon me. Through the
pro bono work done at D&I for WWF, I started to receive regular dosages of information about the deterioration of the biodiversity, the overexploitation of natural resources and the increasing urgency
to tackle climate change. The flow of information increased when I was appointed board member
for WWF Finland. Also, during those years, I had many interesting discussions with my daughter, who recently completed her masters in biology, about human genetics, biochemistry and how exposure
to toxic chemicals affects us. Thirdly, client projects involving sustainability and compliance became more and more important parts of my work as
head of Corporate Advisory, Compliance and CSR. I remember starting to vaguely think about a future
in globally oriented environmental work sometime around 2014/2015. The thoughts grew stronger last summer at Berkeley where I completed the first part of my two-summer LLM studies. At Berkeley
I learned how big a role lawyers play, at least in America, in promoting environmentally conscious and sustainable public policies. I was greatly impressed by the organisation Earthjustice that uses the slogan “Earth Needs a Good Lawyer”.
Q: What are the most rewarding things about working at WWF?
WWF works to build a future where there is good balance between nature and people. The work is done on a wide spectrum of activities ranging from building snowbanks to protect the newborn Saimaa ringed seal to hands-on building of fishways around dams in freshwater waterways to interaction with politicians and businesses about steps towards carbon-neutrality and further onto international talks at Arctic Council. Although I thought that I
had a pretty good understanding ahead, I have been amazed during the first months as a new Panda (that’s what new recruits are called at WWF) at how much the group of about 60 people at WWF Finland can accomplish. The talent is in cooperation and the engaging organisations and people to work with WWF to reach important goals. It is very rewarding to be able to contribute my part for the saving of the world.
Q: What legal issues or challenges have you got coming up on the horizon at WWF?
The great challenge at WWF is making governments and businesses understand the urgency around climate change. Although the common goal under the Paris Agreement is to keep the global warming under 2°C compared to pre-industrial time, the transformation to carbon-neutrality is lagging seriously behind. It is apparent that the present policy approach that promotes voluntary efforts
and produces legislation that impose transparency and reporting requirements to generate market pressure on reducing carbon footprints have proven to be insufficient. Making the changes happen
soon enough seems to call for impact-oriented legislation. The parliaments in Finland, in EU and globally may need to move to passing binding obligation on government entities and businesses to assess whether their actions are in line with the two-degree target and if not, to make the necessary changes. The challenge is how to draft such legislation so that the rules are easy to understand, implement and monitor.
Q: What do you miss from Dittmar & Indrenius?
The best part of the work at D&I was working with long-term clients, some of which I had the pleasure of advising for over 20 years. Long cooperation built mutual trust and gave an in-depth understanding of