After officing a couple doors apart for a few years at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, Alex Farr and Paul Genender are back together as law partners.
Paul Hastings announced Tuesday that Farr, a corporate tax law expert, has joined the firm’s Dallas office as a partner.
“After I joined Paul Hastings last year, Alex and I talked and he’s a fabulous tax lawyer and a great addition to our team,” Genender, who is co-chair of Paul Hastings’ Texas operations, told The Texas Lawbook.
Farr, who represents private equity funds, portfolio companies and corporations on tax matters related to mergers, acquisitions and restructurings, is leaving McDermott Will & Emery after more than three years.
A 2011 graduate of the SMU Dedman School of Law, Farr said the recent additions of Genender and a corporate finance team from Vinson & Elkins made Paul Hastings’ “an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.”
“The firm’s dedication to expanding its capabilities in the Texas market and its supercharged growth caught my attention,” he said. “The entire firm has an impressive trajectory and, with its high-caliber and diversified client base, it enables me to grow my practice while helping to expand the firm’s capabilities both locally and nationally.”
Farr told The Lawbook that he has been busy with M&A transactions in the energy, technology and healthcare sectors. He also said he’s been involved in several financings and restructurings resulting from the current challenging interest rate environment.
“The confluence of a high interest rate environment and uncertainty around the future of tax policy and legislation, given the pending election, have made planning and strategic transactions more uncertain,” he said. “Nevertheless, these factors have not yet slowed the volume and pace of activity, and this year has already been one of my busiest.”
“We will obviously need to keep a close eye on how tax legislation develops over the rest of the year and into 2025 when many provisions enacted in 2017 under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expire or revert to pre-2017 law,” he said.
Paul Hastings has gone from less than 30 lawyers in Texas a year ago to nearly 80 attorneys in Houston and Dallas now.
“The addition of Alex reflects our continued focus on strengthening our market-leading corporate platform with top-tier lawyers that enhance our ability to serve clients on their most critical and complex matters,” said firm chair Frank Lopez. “It also continues the building of our Texas practice, which remains a strategic priority.”