NUS Law alumnus’ heart for nature moves him from dispute resolution to climate action

“What are you going to do with your career after this? Don’t you want to provide for your wife and family?” Sean Douglas Tseng ’13 faced scepticism from friends and peers when he announced his decision to pursue further studies in environmental law. After all, he was doing well as a Senior Associate at one of Singapore’s leading law firms.

In 2019, Sean paused his career at Allen & Gledhill LLP and went to University College London to pursue an LLM in Environmental Law & Policy.

“They were well-meaning warnings,” acknowledged Sean. “They couldn’t see anyone taking environmental law as a career and felt that my decision was an indulgence. But I was really starting to get worried about the climate crisis.”

An innate call to a larger purpose

Sean has always loved nature. He would often be found at nature parks over the weekend or go on nature walks while overseas. On a graduation trip, he spent two weeks on a Sri Lankan beach taking care of injured and rehabilitating turtles as part of a conservation project. However, Sean never envisioned a career in environmental law—until the 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report opened his eyes to the gravity of the climate crisis.

“It was surprising how dire of a situation our climate is in. Things didn’t look as if they were turning around. All our dreams and ambitions would be completely pointless if there were no habitable earth to realise them,” shared Sean, who felt that lawyers like himself could contribute meaningfully. “All I knew then, was that this was important to me. I wanted to be able to do my part to mitigate the climate crisis in whatever way I could, no matter how small.”

When Sean was eight, he was deeply impacted by an image of a lone polar bear on melting he saw in a textbook. For two weeks, he would do the “Earth Hour”—switching off all the lights at home and plunging his family into darkness—trying to save the world and polar bears. Laughing, he recalled, “I think I managed to save $20 off the electricity bill by the end of that month!”

Perhaps it was an innate call to a larger purpose.

Sailing into less chartered waters

Sean topped his LLM class in 2020. In 2021, while still with Allen & Gledhill, he took his first step into the field of environmental law as a researcher at NUS Law’s Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law (APCEL), a role he continues to hold today. Recruited by APCEL Director Associate Professor Jolene Lin as a Senior Adjunct Research Fellow, Sean not only conducts research and co-authors publications with international organisations such as the United Nations (UN) Environment Programme and UN Global Compact, but also leads capacity-building programmes for legal professionals on corporate law, regulation and climate change. A year later, he left Allen & Gledhill to join environmental NGO ClientEarth

“I agonised over the decision. Ultimately, I needed to balance what I felt was enough financially so that my family and I wouldn’t struggle to make ends meet, and at the same time, being clear and courageous to embark on what I felt was worth dedicating my career to,” revealed Sean, on his career switch.

For over two years at ClientEarth, he engaged organisations on sustainability issues such as governance, disclosures and decarbonisation strategies. Climate litigation in Asia is challenging, shared Sean. “Instead, we try to advocate for sound policies that would fit the country’s context, have these trickle down to the way businesses are run and also achieve climate goals.”

In April, headhunted by fast fashion brand Shein as its Senior Legal Counsel for Sustainability, Sean’s career transited to where he felt he could “contribute more on the inside than talking at them from the outside”. His role now involves providing legal and strategic support for the company’s ESG (environmental, social and governance) objectives and initiatives.

Everyone has a part to play

Sustainability issues now impact many legal professionals, from banking and finance to corporate advisory, with investment and consumer preferences increasingly driven by sustainability concerns. In December 2022, Ms Indranee Rajah, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Finance and National Development, outlined the government’s sustainability strategies and emphasised the critical role professionals play in advancing this agenda. Sean observed this significant shift brought about by climate change.

“Everyone has a part to play, and value to capture—this was a key point made by Minister Indranee,” Sean noted. “The environmental law landscape here is still quite nascent. Beyond the professional sphere, much groundwork is needed at the university level. The hope is that through education, students can explore how they can contribute in their own ways.”

Sean is placing his hope on future generations. Balancing his full-time role at Shein with commitments at APCEL, he has dedicated time to designing curriculum and teaching NUS Law students.

Now a father to a toddler, Sean feels an even deeper personal responsibility for the planet’s future.

“We do not have much time. We are already at around 1.2 to 1.3 degrees of warming. Beyond the 1.5 degree threshold (as set out in the Paris Agreement), we risk crossing climate tipping points that may lead to irreversible consequences. As a society, we need to ratchet down our emissions as much as we can.”