- Chairman: : Seth Zachary
- Managing Partner: Greg Nitzkowski
- Number of partners: 284
- Number of lawyers: 1029
- International Offices:
- Europe: Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Milan, Paris
- Asia: Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo
Firm Overview:
Founded in 1951, Paul Hastings LLP is a leading global law firm with 19 offices throughout Asia, Europe and the US. The firm recently opened an office in the world’s energy capital of Houston, Texas, and announced plans for a Seoul, Korea location. Paul Hastings has the global reach and capabilities to provide personalized service wherever the clients’ needs take it. Through a collaborative approach, entrepreneurial spirit and firm commitment to client service, the professionals of Paul Hastings deliver innovative solutions to many of the world’s top financial institutions and Fortune 500 companies.
Main Areas of Practice:
Corporate:
The Paul Hastings Corporate practice is globally recognized in virtually every area of corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, public and private equity and debt financings, formation of investment funds, project finance, securitizations, bankruptcy, corporate restructurings and distressed debt trading, venture capital work, technology licensing, and franchising and distribution arrangements.
Employment:
The Paul Hastings Labor and Employment practice is recognized as one of the largest in its field, with an outstanding record in defending class actions for large multinational companies. The lawyers counsel clients with respect to all areas of employment law including benefits, discrimination, downsizing, employee mobility, harassment, immigration, traditional labor and wage and hour.
Litigation:
The firm’s Litigation practice provides premier litigation services to clients facing complex legal issues in the US, Europe, South America, the Middle East and Asia. The Litigation practice covers every major practice including securities, subprime litigation, intellectual property, class action and employment litigation, international arbitration, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and whitecollar crime.
Real Estate:
The Paul Hastings Global Real Estate practice covers all areas of real estate finance, sales and acquisitions,private equity,development, hotels and hospitality, leasing, joint ventures, partnerships and limited liability companies, and bankruptcy and restructuring of real estate portfolios. The practice’s environmental, planning, construction and real estate litigation expertise is extensive, as is its experience in debt, equity and hybrid investment.
Tax:
The firm’s Global Tax practice covers mergers and acquisitions, capital market offerings, investment and joint venture structuring, leasing, structured and project finance and financial product planning and structuring. It is internationally known as having one of the preeminent tax practices in telecommunications, real estate, executive compensation and tax-exempt and taxfavored investments.
Recent Work Highlights:
• Deutsche Bank relaunches European CMBS market with £302m issue: In what was widely viewed as the post-crisis relaunch of the European Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securitization (CMBS) market, Paul Hastings advised Deutsche Bank, London Branch, in the first CMBS placed into the market since 2007. The new £302m CMBS – also the first European transaction implementing CMBS 2.0 structural improvements – allowed Blackstone Group to acquire Chiswick Park, one of Britain’s largest office parks.
• OaktreeCapital Management wins more than US$2.3b in FDIC auctions: Paul Hastings continued their close partnership with Oaktree Capital Management, helping the private equity firm and its partners win more than US$2.3b in assets at FDIC auctions. The firm advised Oaktree on a trio of sales in the Summer of 2011, which wrapped a complicated mix of residential and commercial loans from 30 banks into a transaction worth US$612m.
• Samsung executes global strategy in more than a dozen jurisdictions in sale of hard drive business: Paul Hastings advised on the US$1.4b sale of Samsung’s hard disk drive business to Seagate Technology. The Samsung transaction was granted clearance worldwide, while the competitors’ transaction was subjected to a substantial divestiture order. In total, the transaction required asset transfers in six different jurisdictions, IP arrangements in over 25, and merger clearance in over a dozen.
• Paul Hastings achieves significant wage and hour victory for UPS: Paul Hastings successfully resolved litigation that began in 2003, when a UPS full-time supervisor sued his employer, alleging that he was misclassified as exempt and therefore denied overtime and payments for missed meal and rest breaks. On behalf of UPS, Paul Hastings convinced the federal district court judge to decertify the class. Of the resulting 54 individual cases, Paul Hastings secured 16 wins, two published decisions in UPS’ favor, and no monetary losses; resulting in the remaining 38 individual plaintiffs walking away from their cases.
• Paul Hastings achieves unanimous victory for UBS, dismissal of fraud claims in synthetic CDO securities litigation: In a decision that has far-reaching implications, Paul Hastings obtained the unanimous dismissal by New York’s First Department of all fraud claims and affirmation of the dismissal of negligent misrepresentation and punitive damages claims brought by HSH Nordbank, a German commercial bank, against UBS. The case involves HSH's $500m purchase of notes in a synthetic CDO transaction called North Street 2002-4.