Note: This story has been updated to clarify the timeline.
Global private equity firm Warburg Pincus announced Nov. 7 that it has tapped Robert Knauss, who most recently worked as a corporate partner at law firm Munger Tolles & Olson, as its new general counsel and managing director.
Knauss has already begun work at the New York headquarters of the firm and serves in its Executive Management Group. He replaces Scott Arenare, who had been general counsel at the firm for 15 years and is departing, Warburg Pincus said, to pursue a new business opportunity.
“I am excited to join Warburg Pincus and contribute to its growth-oriented approach to private equity,” Knauss said in a statement. “I look forward to collaborating with the talented professionals across the firm.”
Warburg Pincus has a large portfolio, with more than 125 companies in diversified sectors as well as $35 billion in assets under management. The firm also has a global reach, with offices from Amsterdam to Mumbai to Mauritius.
At Munger Tolles & Olson, where Knauss began working in 1981, his specialization was mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and securities, and private equity, for clients like Yucaipa Companies, Oaktree Capital Management, and Lazard and Moelis & Company.
“Rob’s a talented lawyer who brings to the firm a tremendous amount of relevant experience,” Joseph Landy, co-chief executive officer of Warburg Pincus, said in a statement. “We will benefit greatly from Rob’s expertise, counsel and leadership.”
Knauss is a graduate of Harvard College and University of Michigan Law School. Before joining Munger Tolles, Knauss was a clerk for former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court William Rehnquist.
