Prior to rejoining Reed Smith in 2017, Paul was Associate General Counsel for Real Estate at The Gap, Inc. in San Francisco. In that capacity he and his teams were responsible for retail and corporate real estate transactions, property management and related litigation and dispute resolution for a portfolio of some 2,500 retail outlets, as well as dozens of offices and distribution centers, across all of Gap’s brands (Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Athleta, Intermix and Piperlime) in North America, the UK, Japan and Mexico. Paul served as the real estate lead for numerous strategic initiatives while at Gap, including the acquisition and disposition of major corporate real estate assets and flagship retail locations, strategic corporate acquisitions and the company’s migration from brick and mortar to omnichannel retailing. He also assumed extensive global responsibilities at Gap, negotiating significant offshore real estate transactions for Gap Inc. Sourcing in Hong Kong, India, Korea and Vietnam, among other jurisdictions; managed Gap’s Tokyo-based Japan legal team across all specialty areas; and was responsible for all real estate law elements of Gap’s expansion into Latin America from 2014 through 2016. He has personally negotiated or supervised the negotiation of numerous flagship and other retail leases in Mexico City and numerous other locations throughout Mexico.

Paul was previously a partner in the Real Estate Practice Group at Reed Smith and Crosby, Heafey Roach & May (combined with Reed Smith in 2003) from 2000-2006, with a practice focused on money center banks and real estate investment trusts, commercial real estate owners, developers and operators, technology companies, health care companies and high net worth individuals and families in real estate and finance transactions. During this period Paul served as a firm representative on the San Francisco Committee on Jobs, an association of San Francisco’s leading businesses and employers advocating for job growth and long-term economic vitality in the San Francisco Bay Area.

From 1997-2014, Paul was a principal in Carneros Partners, the ground-up developer of the Carneros Inn in the Napa Valley, one of the leading luxury, boutique hotels in the United States. As a founding member of the development team, Paul supervised all legal matters pertaining to the acquisition, entitlement and construction of the property resort from 1997 through 2000, and chaired the partnership’s full investor group through the sale of the property in 2014.

Paul began his legal career as a litigation attorney at one of California's leading law firms, Bronson, Bronson & McKinnon, where he maintained an extensive commercial litigation, real estate, professional liability and appellate practice representing business owners, real estate owners and operators, financial institutions, brokers, contractors and others in a broad variety of commercial and real estate disputes, including workouts. Paul was a major contributor to "California Civil Practice: Real Property Litigation" (Bancroft –Whitney 1994). He appeared regularly in trial courts and before arbitrators throughout California and handled cases before the California Court of Appeal, including several published decisions. He has successfully litigated before the Department of Interior, Board of Land Appeals.

Paul has been extensively involved in pro bono work at every stage of his career, representing nonprofit organizations in connection with their real estate needs and also taking on guardianship and immigration cases, among many other engagements. He served for three years as Co-Chair of Gap Inc.'s Global Pro Bono & Pipeline Committee, with responsibility for setting policy, overseeing engagement efforts and managing the client portfolio for Gap’s innovative, worldwide pro bono and legal pipeline diversity efforts.

A native San Franciscan, Paul is active in many legacy San Francisco civic institutions and has extensive nonprofit management experience through his service as a longtime Board member and former Board Chair of Larkin Street Youth Services, a leading social service agency providing  comprehensive continuum of services to homeless and at-risk youth in San Francisco; a Board and Executive Committee member at St. Ignatius College Preparatory, the oldest private college preparatory school in San Francisco; and a member of the Legal Committee of the Olympic Club.  He is a regular volunteer at St. Anne’s Home for the Aged (Little Sisters of the Poor) in the Richmond District, and with the Georgetown University Admissions Committee. Among many other professional affiliations, Paul has a long history of active involvement with the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)  and the National Retail Tenants Association (NRTA).

Paul is a bilingual French speaker, fluent in Spanish and has working proficiency in Italian and Russian.  He has earned the highest (AV) Peer Review Rating from Martindale-Hubbell, and has been named a Northern California Super Lawyer.