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December 08, 2020

New ABA book helps lawyers advise corporate clients on business and human rights

CHICAGO, Dec. 8, 2020 — The American Bar Association Business Law Section’s recently published new book, “Business and Human Rights: Advising Clients on Respecting and Fulfilling Human Rights,” is a comprehensive guide that helps lawyers advise corporate clients on respecting and fulfilling human rights. The book is an introduction to key topics for those who counsel businesses on how they can effectively fulfill responsibilities to their stakeholders and society on how human rights should be respected in day-to-day business operations.

“Business and Human Rights” follows the flow of the United Nations’ “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations ‘Protect, Respect, and Remedy’ Framework.” The book discusses each element in the due diligence process, including developing human rights policies and commitments, impact assessment, integration, measurement and tracking, and communications and reporting.

In a comprehensive approach that covers all areas of potential client issues, author Alan S. Gutterman discusses in this guide:

  • What are human rights and who is responsible
  • International human rights law and development of legally binding standards
  • The role of lawyers and the legal profession in business and human rights
  • Businesses’ impact on human rights and the evolving relationship
  • Human rights policies and reasons for developing them
  • Rights at work and labor practices
  • Supply chain management
  • Discrimination and vulnerable groups
  • How human rights topics are being integrated into existing standards of professional responsibility for lawyers and law firms
  • COVID-19 impact on human rights

Gutterman is the founding director of the Sustainable Entrepreneurship Project (www.seproject.org). His cornerstone work, “Business Transactions Solution,” is an online-only product featured on Thomson Reuters’ Westlaw. Gutterman has more than 30 years’ experience as a partner and senior counsel with internationally recognized law firms working in the areas of general corporate and securities, venture capital, M&A and more. He is co-author of the ABA book, “The Lawyer’s Corporate Social Responsibility Deskbook.

Title:                     Business and Human Rights
Publisher:          ABA Business Law Section
Pages:                   336
Product Code:       5070788
ISBN:                     978-1-64105-863-0
Size:                      7x10
Binding:                Paperback
Price:                     $89.95
Orders:                  800-285-2221 or ShopABA.org

Editor’s note: Author interviews and review copies of this book are available by emailing Katrina Krause at [email protected]. If you publish a review of this book, please send tear sheets or a copy for our files to Katrina Krause, ABA Business Law Section, 321 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL 60654

 

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