Paul Hastings Continues Corporate Growth Hot Streak, Adding Prominent Capital Markets Partner in Los Angeles

August 19, 2019

Los Angeles—Paul Hastings LLP, a leading global law firm, announced today that prominent capital markets lawyer Jonathan Ko has joined the firm as a partner in Los Angeles. His arrival builds on Paul Hastings’ strong flow of corporate partner additions in London, New York, the Bay Area and Latin America. Ko joins from Skadden.

“We have been focused on expanding our Capital Markets practice over the past several years, in response to our clients’ needs and the dynamics of the global markets,” said Seth Zachary, chair of Paul Hastings. “This includes adding top talent like Jonathan to our global Securities and Capital Markets team, enabling us to offer even greater value and insights to our clients.”

“I’ve been watching the development of Paul Hastings’ global Securities and Capital Markets practice, and the opportunity to join the firm was very attractive to me,” said Ko. “I’m excited by Paul Hastings’ tremendous growth and momentum, along with the opportunities to collaborate with colleagues in Capital Markets, M&A and other practices to help further that growth.”

Ko represents public and private companies, investment banks, private equity firms and other institutional investors in a wide range of capital market transactions across various industries, including financial services, gaming, hospitality, real estate, retail and technology. These transactions include initial public offerings, follow on and secondary offerings, and public and private offerings of high-yield debt, investment grade debt and equity securities. Mr. Ko has handled the financing and securities law aspects of mergers and acquisitions transactions. In addition, Mr. Ko counsels clients on SEC reporting and compliance obligations as well as other corporate and securities law matters.

Ko’s arrival follows the firm’s expansion in São Paulo with partners Jonathan Kellner and David Flechner and continues the high-caliber growth of the Securities and Capital Markets practice in 2019, following the additions of partners and Frank Lopez and Joyce Xu in New York. More broadly, the firm is experiencing a hot streak of lateral additions across its global practices this year, including Private Equity partners Ed Harris and Leanne Moezi and M&A partner Steven Bryan in London; Private Equity partner Alex Kaufman and M&A partners Bill Choe and Jason Rabbitt-Tomita in Palo Alto; Tax partner Bruno Leroy in Paris; and Private Equity partner Adam Brown and Investigations and White Collar Defense partners Matt Herrington and Tom Best in Washington, D.C.

The addition of Ko further elevates the firm’s premier global Capital Markets practice, which represents sponsors, investment banks, and public and private companies in a broad range of equity and debt capital markets transactions, as well as public company advisory matters. The practice has been recognized for achieving outstanding client successes around the world, including most recently the Equity Market Deal of the Year by Asian Legal Business and the Capital Markets Tax Deal of the Year in the Americas by International Tax Review. Paul Hastings is also ranked among the top 10 firms for securities and capital markets by Latin Lawyer.

At Paul Hastings, our purpose is clear — to help our clients and people navigate new paths to growth. With a strong presence throughout Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the U.S., Paul Hastings is recognized as one of the world’s most innovative global law firms.