The New Head at Paul Hastings

Though he's been at the firm since he was a summer associate in '87, newly appointed Paul Hastings DC chair Scott Flicker is on the cutting edge. Here are three ways:

1) PayPal and Other Non-Traditional Payments

Scott took on the office chair role last month. Since '87, he's watched the firm grow from 300 to almost 1,000 lawyers; strong growth provided so many opportunities that he never accepted in-house and government offers. Aside from healthcare, banking and financial services work is hot, particularly in non-traditional payments. As credit cards cede some space to retailers like PayPal, Facebook, and Square, both the traditional companies and those newer and high-tech need a whole host of legal and regulatory advice.

2) Record-setting Chinese Deals

There weren't any pork legs in Scott's office, despite repping Shuanghui in its $7.1 billion buy of Smithfield, the largest-ever acquisition of an American company by a Chinese one. Here's a memento from another recent matter: the American Airlines labor and antitrust cases that cleared the way for its $17 billion merger to become the world's largest air carrier by number of passengers. He tells us the Shuanghui deal's opponents employed a "kitchen sink approach" with a national security review and congressional hearings (and some fear-mongering about the deterioration of the food supply).

3) He's a Rock Star

Outside the office, you might find Scott playing the guitar. He's jammed at the annual Banding Together battle of the bands with The Unnamed Party, known for its Stones songs. He's also often reading: he's in the midst of Robert Caro's four-volume LBJ biography and just picked up a copy of A Thousand Days (about JFK's presidency) at the Strand bookstore in New York. Scott tells us he's a great believer in having a life outside of the office (a modern idea, not unlike alternative payments).