Overview
Ruth Knox is a partner in the Corporate practice and Global Co-Chair of the ESG & Sustainable Finance practice at Paul Hastings and is based in the firm’s London office. Ms. Knox advises some of the world’s most sophisticated private equity firms, corporations, and project sponsors and lenders on complex and evolving legal issues relating to environmental, social, and governance and climate-related regulatory requirements, investor demands, strategic opportunities (including transition strategies), and voluntary reporting frameworks and coalitions. She is an environment and climate change legal expert.
Ms. Knox’s practice focuses on counseling clients on the management, mitigation, and maximization of ESG risks and opportunities, respectively. She has spent more than a decade advising on ESG regulations and soft law standards, including the EU Sustainable Finance package, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) standard. She provides commercial, solutions-oriented advice in sustainable fund formation, large scale international M&A, sustainable finance transactions, and ESG-related corporate crises of an international profile, and she has meaningful experience in climate and nature-based finance. In her career, she has also advised on a wide range of product regulatory regimes across different sectors, and the UK contaminated land regime.
Ms. Knox has advised hundreds of fund managers on the application of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation and EU Taxonomy Regulation including product designation, investment strategy and operational implementation of bespoke ESG risk, impact, and opportunity management programs deployed through their alternative investment funds. As part of this work, she has helped establish a number of market-leading ESG-driven Article 9 funds. At a prior law firm, Ms. Knox advised on numerous large-scale international corporate M&A transactions across various sectors including oil and gas, petrochemicals, consumer products, and mining. She also advised an international development institution on a market-leading forest bond.
Between 2017 to 2021, Ms. Knox led a major ESG regulatory compliance system review for a European-listed client following a major crisis and related public inquiry involving advice on technical ESG regulatory standards, management, and coordination of various technical stakeholders and strategic advice to senior management in respect of various ESG regulatory issues.
Ms. Knox’s representative clients include TPG, G42, EQT Partners, Affinius Capital, EIG, Digital Bridge, Norwegian Cruise Lines, TowerBrook Capital Partners, Arcmont, Kartesia and Nuveen.
Recognitions
- Chambers Crisis & Risk Management, Band 3: Global-wide Environmental, Social & Governance Risk (Law Firms) (2024)
- Financial News, Fifty Most Influential in Sustainable Finance (2023)
- Chambers UK, “Up and Coming,” UK-wide Environment: Climate Change (2023)
- Chambers UK, “Associate to Watch,” UK-wide Environment: Climate Change (2019-2022)
- The Legal 500 UK, Corporate Governance
- The Legal 500 UK, Environment
Education
- University of Oxford, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment (SSEE), Climate-Related Financial Risks Programme, 2019
- College of Law Moorgate, (Legal Practising Certificate), 2010
Representations
- TPG Rise Climate on its $6.7bn investment in Techem
- EIG on the establishment of its Energy Transition Fund II
- EQT on the SFDR strategy governing its Future Fund
- A market leading AI company on the development of its quality, health, safety and environmental and transition finance compliance strategy and governance
- Nuveen on SFDR-related aspects of its global timberland fund
- Climate Asset Management on the California Climate Accountability Package
- TPG Rise Fund on its investment of over $200 million in Foodsmart, the leading telenutrition provider and food benefits management platform in the US
- TPG Rise Climate on its acquisition of leading renewable fuels storage and delivery company, Olympus Terminals
- VINCI Airports on its acquisition of a controlling stake in Edinburgh Airport from Global Infrastructure Partners for c.£1.27bn
- TPG on its investment in Syre, a new impact venture with a mission to decarbonise the textile industry
- A US commodities supplier on the development of its EU Deforestation Regulation compliance strategy and governance
- TPG on its SFDR and EU Taxonomy compliance strategy in respect of the Rise Climate Fund
- Towerbrook Capital Partners on its SFDR and Taxonomy compliance strategy of the TowerBrook Delta Fund, TowerBrook Structured Opportunities Fund I, II and III, and Towerbrook Funds IV, V and VI, and associated acquisitions
- Macquarie Infrastructure Real Assets, Macquarie Asset Management, and Macquarie Investment Management on its SFDR and Taxonomy compliance strategy in respect of Macquarie Green Investment Group Renewable Energy Fund 2 (MGREF2)
- TPG Rise Climate on the investment of $750 million in Intersect Power
- Teva on its market-leading sustainability linked bond
- bp p.l.c. on the $5 billion sale of its global Aromatics and Acetyls businesses to INEOS
- Unilever on the €6.825 billion sale of its global spreads business to KKR
- National Grid on the £13.8 billion sale of a 61% equity interest in its UK gas distribution business (Cadent) to a consortium led by Macquarie Infrastructure Real Assets, the largest ever energy infrastructure deal in the UK
Matters may have been completed before joining Paul Hastings.
Engagement & Publications
Publications
- “Is the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive too much, too soon?” Environment Journal, April 22, 2024
- “CFTC, Private Sector Actions May Aid Carbon Market Integrity,” Law360, July 20, 2023
- “Enhanced Disclosure Requirements and Potential Multi Jurisdictional Considerations Raised by the SEC’s Proposed ESG Rule,” Private Equity Law Report, August 2, 2022
- “Increasing Focus on Biodiversity-Related Financial Risk Presents New Challenges and Opportunities in Energy and Infrastructure,”Pratt’s Energy Law Report 22-2, February 2022
- “Disclosures Under Taxonomy Regulation Article 8 Delegated Act,” ESG Investor, 2021
- “The Sustainable Finance Reforms: Threat or Opportunity?,” International Financial Law Review, 2020
- “Managers Face ESG Disclosure Pressure Under ‘Ambitious and Demanding’ EU Regulations,” Creditflux, 2021
- “ESG - Why it Matters to General Counsel,” International Financial Law Review, 2019
- “Should Competition Authorities Integrate Environmental Protection Into Competition Policy?,” Global Antitrust Review, 2009
Speaking Engagements
- Moderator, “Fireside Chat with Olivia Wassenaar of Apollo Global Management,” Kayo’s Sustainable Investment Summit, June 13–14, 2023
- Participant and Steering Committee Member, Cambridge Forum on ESG, January 16 2023
- Moderator, “The Push Towards Enhanced Consideration of ESG Factors is Coming From All Angles,” PEI’s Responsible Investment Forum: Europe, November 16–17, 2022
- Panelist, Climate Litigation and Activism Summit, City & Financial Global, November 11 2022
- Panelist, “How is the Regulatory Landscape Shifting?,” UKSIF Autumn Conference, November 8 2022
- Moderator, “Regulatory Shifts: Mapping Recent Regulatory Changes on the Road to Heightened Global ESG Disclosure,” Private Equity Wire’s Private Equity European ESG Summit, September 27, 2022
- Moderator, “Specialist and generalist impact investment strategies,” PEI Impact Investor Global Summit London 2022, May 18–19, 2022
- Speaker, “Regulatory shifts and greenwashing: Mapping recent regulatory changes on the road to heightened global ESG disclosure,” Private Equity US ESG Summit, May 4, 2022
- Speaker, “ESG Regulation: What's Next?,” ACA Regulatory Horizon 2022, March 8–10, 2022
- Speaker, “GC Webcast: What is private equity doing to combat climate change?,” Global Custodian, January 26, 2022
- Moderator, “The Continued Rise of Impact Investing in Alternatives,” Women in Private Markets Summit, December 1–2, 2021
Involvement
- Member, Environment Working Group, City of London Law Society
- Member, Transition Finance Market Review Working Group, City of London Law Society
- Member of the Steering Committee of the Cambridge Forum on ESG
- Member of the Energy and Climate Change Working Group, UK Environmental Law Association
- Member of the SFDR Working Group, Invest Europe
- Member of the ESG Working Group, Invest Europe
- Member of the Climate Change Taskforce, Invest Europe
- The Social Mobility Foundation