Statement on CEO remuneration

Below is ClientEarth’s statement on CEO remuneration in response to an article in the Daily Telegraph today.

ClientEarth has gone from strength to strength every year since it was founded by CEO James Thornton and has doubled in size over the last four years.

In 2017 it was voted the most effective environmental charity in the UK by the CEOs of other green organisations, it is ranked by the FT as one of the top 50 innovative law groups in Europe and was named Charity of the Year by Charity Times.

The New Statesman has picked James as one of 10 people who could change the world. The Lawyer listed him as one of the top 100 lawyers in the UK. In 2016 and 2017, he was named as one of the 1,000 most influential people in London and also won Leader of the Year at the 2016 Business Green Awards. The Financial Times awarded him its Special Achievement accolade at the FT 2016 Innovative Lawyers Awards.

James Thornton’s total remuneration in 2017 included a one-off pension contribution of £32,093 to recognise historic underpayment of pension contributions.

He abandoned a career in commercial law to dedicate his life to the legal defence of one client: the earth. He has fought and won cases to protect the health of children up and down the country from illegal levels of air pollution.

He and the organisation he’s built have had remarkable success on behalf of the planet and the people who inhabit it and James has unrivalled experience in his field. His remuneration reflects this.

Our support from the Department for International Development (DFID) is for a project to reduce deforestation and not one penny of it is used for James’ salary, as is inferred in the article.