Paul M Schmidt

Career

Paul Schmidt is Chairman of BakerHostetler, serving as the firm's chief executive officer, as well as chair of its Policy Committee and Strategic Planning Committee. He is a sought-after speaker and commenter on legal industry trends and law firm leadership and culture, and is a trusted advisor on international taxation.

POLICYMAKING

As the overseer of firm governance, Paul convenes the body of 15 policymaking partners to debate, deliberate and vote on a broad range of issues that impact the firm’s success on behalf of clients, the partnership and all of its constituencies. Paul has been fully committed to leading the partnership with bold strategic initiatives throughout the pandemic. He communicates regularly to reinforce the firm’s culture of collegiality and inclusion and remains focused on enhancing the health and welfare of personnel at all levels. He is keenly focused on assuring the firm stays true to its mission of providing timely, responsive and high-quality legal services to the firm’s clients.

In addition to his responsibilities as Chairman, Paul devotes time to the national Board of Governors of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. He is also a member of the Bloomberg Tax U.S. International Advisory Board, the GW/IRS Annual Institute on Taxation Advisory Board, and has served as the U.S. Vice Chair of the American Bar Association Tax Section Foreign Lawyers Forum. Paul also taught international tax as an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center for over a decade.

LAW FIRM MANAGEMENT

Paul’s decades of experience as a member of the firm’s management team began as the head of the firm’s Tax Group, leading both the national tax practice and the international tax team for nine years. During his tenure as Tax Group Chair, Paul achieved unification and alignment of the diverse interests of practice teams across the Tax Group. This experience prepared him to develop and implement the firm’s Strategic Plan. As Chairman of the firm, his primary focus is steering the firm’s strategic priorities. He is also responsible for the direction of the firm’s client service, practice delivery and operations. Paul oversees the business of the law firm while never losing sight of the firm’s most important asset: its people.

TAX PRACTICE

Paul joined BakerHostetler in 2004 as a partner. He aspired to build a tax practice steeped in consistent work product, excellence and client service to match. His abilities to do both led to his role as practice group leader.

Following completion of a J.D. degree, Paul prepared for a career in the tax field, earning an L.L.M. and becoming a CPA. With combined experience as a Wall Street law firm associate and a subsequent stint with the U.S. Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation under his belt, Paul joined a Big Four accounting firm as a partner before continuing his legal career as a BakerHostetler partner.

Paul’s legal experience as a tax practitioner revolves around the needs of domestic and multi-national companies for sophisticated tax counsel in two principal areas – tax implications related to transactions and controversies. His representations have included private equity and hedge funds and publicly traded partnerships, along with industrial, technology, energy and commodities businesses, on all facets of taxation. Paul advises clients on technical and policy issues in connection with tax reform, transfer pricing, treaties, permanent establishments, U.S. trade or business, subpart F, foreign tax credits, GILTI, FDII, BEAT, inversions and global debt issues for a diverse client base.

Historically, Paul’s tax matters have reflected a broad client base. The majority of his client matters involve confidential counseling and are rarely publicly reported but include work for clients such as The Carlyle Group, Wyndham Hotel Group, Wyndham Destinations, Archer Daniels Midland and the Las Vegas Sands, to name a few. While he continues to have an active practice, he currently devotes substantial energy to his responsibilities in his full-time role at the firm.