At the Vatican’s invitation on March 18, Denver partner T. Markus Funk addressed the members of the Global Sustainability Network Forum. The forum, hosted inside the Vatican by the Pontificia Accademia delle Scienze Sociali at Pope Francis’ direction, was organized as the follow-on event to the December 2, 2014, Joint Declaration of Religious Leaders signed by religious leaders from across various faiths (Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Islam, and Anglicanism), and the associated September 2015 passage of United Nations Goal 8.7 concerning human trafficking.

Markus was the only private practice lawyer invited to speak as part of the “Business Panel,” where he joined Luca di Montezemolo (Chairman of Alitalia, VP of Unicredit, and former Chairman of Ferrari, Fiat, and Maserati), Jochen Zeitz (Chairman of Sustainability at Harley-Davidson, former CEO of Puma, and three-time Financial Times of London “Strategist of the Year”); and Marcela Manubens (Global VP for Social Impact at Unilever). The purpose of the meeting was to outline specific steps to advance global efforts to combat modern day slavery consistent with the Declaration and UN Goal 8.7, and Markus and his co-panelists specifically focused on the recent proliferation of antitrafficking supply chain compliance requirements aimed at global businesses.

The 68 attendees included former prime ministers and other government and religious leaders, members of royal families, and prominent business and philanthropic leaders from around the world.

Markus is the founding co-chair of Perkins Coie’s Supply Chain Compliance and Corporate Social Responsibility practice (the first such dedicated practice among the largest law firms) and author (with U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall) of Child Exploitation and Trafficking: Examining Global Enforcement and Supply Chain Challenges and U.S. Responses (2nd edition scheduled for September 2016).