Mr. Paton is a member of Davis Polk & Wardwell’s Tax Department. He advises corporate and financial clients in U.S. domestic and international taxation. Since 1988, he has been resident in the firm’s European offices, and has overseen the firm’s tax practice in Europe and Asia since 1993.

Mr. Paton advises U.S. and international clients on the U.S. tax aspects of private and public offerings of securities in the United States and abroad; the structuring of international financial products, the structuring of international joint ventures and business combinations, cross-border acquisitions and divestitures; the structuring of investment funds to invest internationally utilizing a variety of entity forms, including U.S. and non-U.S. partnerships, non-U.S. corporate entities treated as partnerships for U.S. federal income tax purposes and corporations; and the structuring for investments made by such funds.

Mr. Paton joined Davis Polk in 1984 and became counsel in 1993. He became a partner in 1997. He practiced in the Paris office from 1988 to 1989 and has practiced in the London office from 1989 to the present.

Mr. Paton received a BCOM and LL.B. (Hons.) from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, in 1982, and in 1984 received his LL.M. from Cornell Law School. He was awarded a Fulbright Grant, a Postgraduate Scholarship from the New Zealand University Grants Committee, and a William Georgetti Scholarship in 1983.

He is a member of the New York State Bar.