Dallas corporate bankruptcy and restructuring partner Charles Persons has joined Paul Hastings as the corporate law firm continues to beef up its Texas bankruptcy operations.
Persons and Paul Genender, who is co-chair of the Dallas and Houston offices at Paul Hastings, worked with each other at Weil, Gotshal & Manges in 2016 and 2017, and both say that their knowledge of each other’s practices and their friendship played a key role in Persons’ decision to join the firm, which has grown from 25 to 80 lawyers in Texas during the past year.
“What Paul Hastings is building is impressive,” Persons, a 2007 graduate of the Indiana University School of Law, told The Texas Lawbook. “The firm is working on top-notch cases and doing top-notch work. It is clear that Texas is not just going to be a small outpost for Paul Hastings. This was an opportunity that was too good to pass up.”
Persons said that his work this year includes several out-of-court private company transactions involving financially distressed businesses and a number of private equity lending deals.
“A long period of higher interest rates has put a lot of financial pressure on companies,” he said. “We had some slower years because of government funding and PPP money during the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Persons said he thinks the Southern District of Texas and the Northern District of Texas will see increased activity in Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings. He said the complex business bankruptcy courts in the Southern District “will ultimately be fine” despite the spotlight the district has faced because of the recent scandal involving former Houston bankruptcy judge David Jones and his secret romantic relationship with a former Jackson Walker bankruptcy partner.
“We have exceptional panels of bankruptcy judges in both districts,” he said. “Judge [Christopher] Lopez and Judge [Alfredo] Perez are excellent judges with tremendous experience and expertise.”