Look who’s getting a little respect now. U.N. human rights czar John Ruggie has won over his fiercest critic in the corporate law bar, in his quest to formalize the guiding principles applied to corporations’ responsibility to respect human rights.
In a new note to clients, Martin Lipton of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz praised Ruggie’s draft guidelines as a “potentially significant blueprint” that “insightfully marries aspirations with practicality.” He concluded: “The draft report’s eminently reasonable guiding principles can be endorsed, and practically implemented, by corporations.” In a telephone interview, Lipton called the proposal “outstanding.”
