Hogan Lovells adds prominent REIT tax lawyer in San Francisco; expanding practice

“I’m excited to be joining Hogan Lovells,” said Scala. “The firm has a world-renowned REIT practice that will help me expand my practice globally.”

Prior to joining the firm, Scala was a principal at Ernst & Young. Before that he worked as a transactional tax attorney at Arnold & Porter in Washington D.C. and San Francisco.

“Josh is a great fit for our team,” said Prentiss Feagles, who co-leads Hogan Lovells’ U.S. Real Estate Investment Trust Tax Practice in the Washington, D.C. office. “We have seen an increase in client demand for lawyers that specialize in REIT tax and have been strategically building out our team to bolster the joint venture/partnership tax expertise for many parts of our transactional practice in the U.S.”

Scala’s practice is primarily focused on the ownership, development, and disposition of commercial real estate and related federal income tax issues. He has in-depth experience in representing both publicly traded and private REITs with respect to debt and equity capital raising activities, mergers and acquisitions, qualification requirements under the REIT tax law, and structuring transactions with developers, property owners, and institutional investors. He has also advised clients in both the real estate and private equity industries in all aspects of complex real estate development transactions, including negotiating joint venture agreements and property acquisitions, structuring ownership vehicles and transactions in a tax-efficient manner, and securing debt and equity financing.

“Josh’s experience on both the transactional and tax side of REITs will be a valuable asset to our clients on the West Coast and globally,” said Clay James, Managing Partner of the firm’s San Francisco office.

Scala joins months after Cristina Arumi, one of the most respected REIT Tax lawyers in the United States, re-joined Hogan Lovells to work alongside the transactional side of our market-leading REIT practice. He is also one of several laterals to join the San Francisco office in the past two years. IP partners Krista Schwartz and Patrick Michael recently joined the office in July after the addition of Christopher Cox in April. A five-partner strong M&A and technology transactions team including Richard Climan, Keith Flaum, Jane Ross, John Brockland, and Chris Moore, as well as the addition of Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits partner Mike Frank, also joined the firm’s NorCal practice in 2017.

Earlier in his career, Scala served as managing member of a private real estate development company with a focus on the development of planned communities and mixed-use urban infill projects. He also previously worked for a publicly-traded REIT with an investment focus on retail shopping malls. Scala received his JD, summa cum laude, Order of the Coif, from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and graduated from Amherst College.