Paul Hastings

Paul Hastings LLP

No. of offices	23
No. of attorneys	Approximately 1,056 (2024)
Major practice areas	Finance, M&A, private equity, private credit, litigation, restructurings, white collar and government disputes, energy, infrastructure, intellectual property, employment, real estate
Key people	Frank Lopez, Chair Sherrese Smith, Managing Partner Seth Zachary, Chair Emeritus
Revenue	$1.81 billion (2024)
Profit per equity partner	$5.40 million (2024)
Date founded	November 1, 1951
Founder	Lee Paul, Robert Hastings, Leonard Janofsky
Company type	Limited liability partnership
Website	www.paulhastings.com

Paul Hastings LLP is an American multinational law firm with over 1,000 lawyers in 23 offices throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia. The firm represents a client base in finance, M&A, private equity, private credit, and litigation.^[1][2]

The firm specializes in white collar and government disputes, energy, infrastructure, and intellectual property.^[3] Paul Hastings is ranked as one of the most prestigious law firms in the United States.^[4]

Paul Hastings was founded in Los Angeles in 1951 by Lee Paul, Robert Hastings, and Leonard Janofsky. Its largest office is in New York, with additional offices elsewhere in the United States and throughout Asia, Europe, Latin America.^[5][6]   

As of October 2022, the chairman of the firm is Frank Lopez.^[7] Over the last two decades, the firm more than tripled its profits per partner to become one of the largest and strongest law firms in the world.^[7] Over this period, the firm has had the largest profit per partner growth in the highest-grossing half of the Am Law 100.^[8]

• Revenue Per Lawyer (2024): $1.72 million^[9]

In October 2021, the firm announced that Mr. Zachary would step down as Chair in October 2022. Frank Lopez, co-head of the firm’s securities and capital markets practice and partner in the firm’s leveraged finance practice in New York, was voted chair-elect effective October 2021. Washington, D.C.-based Sherrese Smith, vice chair of the firm’s data privacy and cybersecurity practice and partner in the firm’s media, technology and telecommunications practice, was elected managing partner.^[7]

In November 2023, amid a wave of antisemitic incidents at elite U.S. law schools, Paul Hastings was among a group of major law firms who sent a letter to top law school deans warning them that an escalation in incidents targeting Jewish students would have corporate hiring consequences. The letter said "We look to you to ensure your students who hope to join our firms after graduation are prepared to be an active part of workplace communities that have zero tolerance policies for any form of discrimination or harassment, much less the kind that has been taking place on some law school campuses."^[10]

• Ronald Barak (born 1943), Olympic gymnast.
• Ralph B. Everett, first African-American partner at Paul Hastings and adviser to several U.S. presidential campaigns.^[11]
• Jay C. Gandhi, first South Asian American federal judge in California, was a partner at the firm.
• Robert Luskin, specialist in white-collar crime and federal and state government investigations, and an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches a course in global anti-corruption.
• Thomas P. O'Brien, former U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, joined Paul Hastings in 2009.^[12]
• Robert P. Silvers, U.S. Under Secretary for Strategy, Policy, and Plans.

• List of largest law firms by profits per partner

• Official Website