Paul Barker

Partner ESG & Impact

Bay Area – San Francisco +1 415 439 1812

Paul Barker

Overview

Excellent team-player, very strong intellect. Paul is fantastic with clients. - The Legal 500

Paul is a partner in the Bay Area office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP and a member of the Firm’s ESG & Impact Practice Group, which advises some of the world’s most sophisticated private equity firms, corporations, and project sponsors and lenders on complex and evolving ESG issues.

Paul is an experienced international litigator and counsel. He has a particular focus on climate change law and policy, which intersects regulatory, transactional, and litigation practice. Complementing this work, Paul is an adjunct at Columbia University in New York, where he teaches a class on business and climate change.

Paul counsels clients in the U.S. and worldwide on a wide range of matters under domestic law and international law, including:

  • Carbon Markets — Compliance, voluntary, and Article 6 carbon markets; carbon credit transactions and investment funds; establishment of carbon platforms.
  • Disclosure/Regulation — Voluntary frameworks and standards; public company and private funds ESG regulation.
  • Impact Investment — Fund formation; structural and operational best practices (oversight, metrics, data gathering systems, reporting).
  • Litigation/Investigations — ESG-related disputes including litigation/arbitration, enforcement, government investigations, and investor-State disputes (ISDS).
  • Net Zero Transition — Legal risk relating to net zero/energy transition strategy or investments, including GHG emissions reductions and science-based targets.
  • Sustainable Finance — Financing frameworks and products including sustainability-linked loans (negotiating key performance indicators, sustainability performance targets).

Prior to joining the Firm, Paul practiced as a barrister from a prominent London chambers, focusing on energy, finance, and foreign investment. He was ranked as a leading barrister for international law and international arbitration by The Legal 500 and Who’s Who Legal, which describes Paul as “an exceptionally gifted and skilled lawyer” with “a brilliant strategic mind.”

Paul was previously based in London, Paris, and New York, and worked on matters in Singapore and Hong Kong. He regularly speaks on law and policy relating to climate change and energy transition, ESG integration and impact investing, and international investment protection. In addition to his Columbia appointment, Paul is a research fellow at Stanford Law School’s Gould Center for Conflict Resolution.

Barrister, Doughty Street Chambers, London

More

Thought Leadership

Representative Publications and Speaking Engagements

Quoted, "The ESG report – Overview: Turning on a greenback," Legal Business, June 28, 2022

Author, “The Major Questions Doctrine Reigns Supreme in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency — Implications for Climate Policy and Impact Investing,” Kirkland Alert, July 6, 2022

Speaker, "Greenwashing Regulation and Litigation," 2022 Leadership Summit for Women in Energy & Infrastructure, May 3, 2022

Speaker, "U.S. DOE Energy Storage Financing For Social Equity Summit," Kirkland Seminar, April 13, 2022 

Author, "SEC Proposes New Climate Disclosure Requirements," Kirkland Alert, March 24, 2022 

Author, "Directors and Executives Position Themselves to Lead on Climate," Energy & Infrastructure Blog, March 16, 2022 

Speaker, “Climate Litigation,” Diligent Climate Leadership Certificate Program, January 18, 2022

Speaker, “Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD): An Overview in the Context of Governance and Oversight,” Diligent Climate Leadership Certificate Program, January 14, 2022

Author, “COP26 and the Role of Private Capital,” Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, December 21, 2021

Author, “TCFD Issues New Guidance as Its Climate Reporting Framework Continues to Gain Traction,” Kirkland Alert, November 10, 2021

Author, “Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization: State Provision to Promote Local Employment in Decarbonization Policies,” Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Columbia Law School, 2021

Panelist, “Business, Human Rights, and the Environment,” Business and Human Rights Practitioners Network, London, October 2021

Panelist, “Climate Change and International Disputes,” Public International Law Webinar Series, London/Singapore/Sydney, October 2021

Speaker, “Climate Change, the Net Zero Energy Transition, and International Investment Law,” 2021/22 Investment Law and Investor-State Mediator Training, ICSID (World Bank), Hong Kong, October 2021

Panelist, “Net Zero Lawyers Alliance: Converting Net Zero Ambitions into Net Zero Obligations,” London Climate Action Week: Road to COP26/Glasgow, London, July 2021

Author, “Sustainable Investment, Deep Decarbonization, and Investor-State Dispute Settlement: The Failure to Align The Investment Treaty System With Climate Change Law & Policy?”, Gould Center for Conflict Resolution, Stanford Law School, May 10, 2021

Recognition

UK Bar, Public International Law, The Legal 500

UK Bar, Who’s Who Legal

Arbitration, Who’s Who Legal

Memberships & Affiliations

Adjunct Lecturer, Columbia University, New York

Research Fellow, Gould Center, Stanford Law School

Visiting Fellow, Lauterpacht Center for International Law, Cambridge University

Credentials

Admissions & Qualifications

  • California
  • New York
  • Admitted to the Bar of England and Wales, Middle Temple

Education

  • Columbia Law SchoolLL.M.
    James Kent Scholar
  • Emmanuel College, University of CambridgeB.A., Law