Sarah Barker

Sarah Barker (B.Com, LLB(Hons), M.Env(Hons), MAICD) is a partner and the global Head of Climate Risk Governance at international law firm Minter Ellison, and a Non-Executive Director at Emergency Services & State Super. She has two decades’ experience in corporate law and governance, specializing in fiduciary duties, misleading or deceptive conduct, competition (antitrust) and consumer protection. Her clients include ASX- and internationally-listed companies in the mining and resources, financial services, insurance, logistics, construction materials, retail, manufacturing and automotive industries, as well as State and Federal government agencies.

Sarah is a faculty member at Cambridge University’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership, for whom she teaches board and executive leadership programmes. She is the author of the ‘Directors’ Duties & Responsibilities’ unit of the Australian Institute of Company Directors’ Company Directors’ Course, and lectures both that unit and ‘The Board’s Legal Environment’.

Sarah has undertaken graduate studies in economics at the London School of Economics & Politics, holds a Master of Environment degree (awarded with Dean’s Honours) from the University of Melbourne, and is an Academic Visitor at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford. Her work on fiduciary duties and climate change has won numerous awards, including the United Nations PRI Sustainalytics prize for responsible investment research.

She is a sought-after speaker and corporate workshop facilitator, and is widely published in the financial press, academic and industry literature on the themes of governance, compliance and sustainability.

Expertise: corporate governance & sustainability, directors’ and officers’ duties, climate change, climate and litigation risk exposure, misleading disclosure.