Ruth Knox

Partner ESG & Impact
Kirkland & Ellis International LLP

London +44 20 7469 2169

Ruth Knox

Overview

“Ruth Knox is a rising star in the area of ESG and sustainability. She is an overall excellent regulatory and commercial contract adviser.” - Chambers & Partners UK, 2022

Ruth Knox is a partner in the London office of Kirkland & Ellis International LLP and 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 legal issues relating to environmental, social and governance (ESG) and climate-related regulatory requirements, investor demands, strategic opportunities, and voluntary reporting frameworks and coalitions.

Ruth’s practice focuses on counseling clients on the management, mitigation and maximization of ESG risks and opportunities respectively. She has spent almost a decade advising on ESG regulations and soft law standards, including the EU Sustainable Finance package, the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) standard. Her experience spans large scale international M&A, sustainable finance transactions and ESG-related corporate crises of an international profile, and she has meaningful experience in climate finance.

Ruth advises across the full range of ESG legal services, including raising finance through sustainability-linked bonds, fund formations mandates, and corporate M&A transactions.

She has advised numerous funds on the application of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation to the categorization, strategy and operational risk and opportunity management programs of their alternative investment funds. As part of this work, she has helped establish a number of market-leading ESG-driven Article 9 funds. At her former law firm, she advised on numerous large-scale international corporate M&A transactions across various sectors including oil and gas, petchems, consumer products and mining. She also advised an international development institution on a market-leading forest bond.

Between 2017 to 2021, she led a major ESG regulatory compliance system review for a European-listed client 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.

Select Representative Clients

Bain Capital Partners, Blackstone Inc., EQT, TPG

Francisco Partners on its acquisition of Kobalt.

Sumeru Equity Partners on the final closing of Fund IV at hard cap of $1.3 billion

EQT Private Equity on the £650 million acquisition of SPT Labtech

TPG Rise Climate on the investment of $750 million in Intersect Power

Ergon Capital on the €800 million final closing of Ergon Capital Partners V

EW Healthcare Partners on the acquisition of a majority stake in Grundium Oy

CPP Investments and Motive Partners on the $1.4 billion investment in FNZ

Vedra on its SFDR compliance strategy in respect of the Hycap Fund and associated acquisitions

TPG on its SFDR and EU Taxonomy compliance strategy in respect of the Rise Climate Fund and associated acquisitions

Providing ESG and SFDR counselling to Bain in respect of their firmwide and impact investment policies

As part of K&E’s role as Global ESG Counsel to Blackstone she has:

  • advised funds managed by Blackstone on a new partnership with Hipgnosis Song Management Ltd (“HSM”), which will initially deliver c.$1 billion to acquire music rights and manage catalogues;
  • quarterbacked Blackstone’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation counsel in respect of their work on Blackstone Energy Partners IV and BGREEN funds;
  • provided ESG counselling to Blackstone NY on SFDR, development in the English case law on negligence, the UK’s modern slavery regime and broader climate risk regulation and market developments.

EQT on ESG and SFDR matters related to its flagship Future Fund

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*

Macquarie Infrastructure Real Assets, Macquarie Asset Management and Macquarie Investment Management on their SFDR regulatory compliance program and the establishment of a market-leading Taxonomy-eligible fund*

*Matters with an asterisk were completed prior to joining Kirkland.

Linklaters LLP

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Thought Leadership

Publications

“New Framework Announced for Assessing and Reporting Nature-Related Financial Risks,” Kirkland & Ellis Energy & Infrastructure Blog, May 11, 2022

“SFDR Regulatory Technical Standards — FAQs,” Kirkland Alert, April 14, 2022

“Directors and Executives Position Themselves to Lead on Climate,” Kirkland & Ellis Energy & Infrastructure Blog, March 16, 2022

“European Commission Publishes Proposed Law Requiring Value Chain Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence,” Kirkland Alert, March 7, 2022

“EU Financial Markets Watchdog Promises Action on Greenwashing,” Kirkland Alert, February 23, 2022

“Increasing Focus on Biodiversity-Related Financial Risk Presents New Challenges and Opportunities in Energy and Infrastructure,” Pratt’s Energy Law Report Vol. 22-2, February 2022

“COP26 and the Role of Private Capital,” Kirkland Alert, November 23, 2021

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

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

“Anticipating the Impact of New Legal Frameworks within the Automotive Industry, New Obligations Under the EU Sustainable Finance Framework,” FT Digital Dialogues, December 2020

“The Impact of ESG Regulations in the 2020s on Sustainability,” Conference on Law and the Ethical Responsibility of Business, October 2020

“What are the Biggest Regulatory and Market Challenges to the Commercialization of the Electric Vehicle Battery?,” The Future of Transportation World Conference, December 2019

Panelist, “Electrification and Technological Developments Impacting the Automotive Sector,” FT Summit on the Future of the Car, May 2019

Recognition

Chambers & Partners UK

  • “Up and Coming: Environment,” 2022
  • “Associates to Watch: Environment,” 2019–2021

The Legal 500 UK

  • Ranked Attorney, Corporate Governance
  • Ranked Attorney, Environment

Memberships & Affiliations

The Social Mobility Foundation

Credentials

Admissions & Qualifications

  • 2012, Admitted to Practice as a Solicitor of England and Wales

Languages

  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Italian

Education

  • University of Oxford, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment (SSEE)Climate-Related Financial Risks Programme2019
  • University College LondonLL.M., International Environmental and Energy Law, Comparative Human Rights2009
  • London School of Economics and Political ScienceLL.B., Law and French Lawwith Honours2008