| Biography | Hatef Behnia, a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's Los Angeles office, is a member of Gibson Dunn's Tax Practice Group. During more than 25 years with Gibson Dunn, Mr. Behnia has specialized in taxable and tax-free mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs and separations, debt and equity financings, derivative securities, partnership transactions, and taxation of special entities such as S corporations, REIT's and financial institutions. He has successfully represented taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service in cases involving significant audit adjustments. Mr. Behnia graduated from Reed College in 1975 with a bachelor of arts degree in mathematics. He received his MBA in 1977 from Stanford Graduate School of Business and received his law degree in 1981 from the University of Southern California Law Center, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif and Note and Article Editor of the Southern California Law Review. Mr. Behnia has been selected by Chambers and Partners as a Leading Tax Lawyer in California for its 2005 through 2009 Chambers USA America's Leading Business Lawyers directories. He has also been named one of the Leading Tax Lawyers by The U.S. Legal 500 for 2008 and 2009. |