Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is pleased to announce that Tim Becker and Wells Miller have joined the firm in Boston as partners in its tax practice. Becker, a former Akin Gump tax partner who rejoined the firm on September 6, 2022, and Miller add deep experience advising funds clients on a wide range of issues. Becker and Miller come to the firm from Boston-based Choate Hall & Stewart LLP.
“Tim and Wells are phenomenal practitioners who focus on the private equity and funds space and are able to operate seamlessly across Akin Gump’s practices in tax, financial restructuring, funds, investigations and regulatory,” said firm chair Kim Koopersmith. “We are delighted to welcome them both to the firm and are excited about the value they bring to the firm’s clients.”
Becker, a nationally recognized lawyer with deep roots in Boston’s business community, has a broad transactional and advisory practice providing tax, structuring and other related legal and business advice to a wide variety of clients, particularly in the investment funds industry. He has more than 20 years of experience advising leading private equity funds, venture capital funds and hedge funds on U.S. and international tax and structuring issues relating to fund formation, operations and investments, including U.S. tax issues arising from inbound and outbound investments by funds. He also advises buyers, sellers and target companies in private equity mergers and acquisitions and other domestic and cross-border transactions.
Miller, a tax attorney focusing on executive compensation, brings more than a decade of experience working with private equity firms, private companies and executives to structure and implement effective and tax-efficient compensation and benefit plans in compliance with ERISA and other applicable regulations. He regularly advises fund clients on all matters relating to executive compensation, including designing, drafting, negotiating and implementing non-qualified deferred compensation plans, equity and equity-based incentive compensation arrangements, severance, change in control and executive employment agreements, particularly in the context of mergers and acquisitions.
“Akin Gump is an ideal platform for our clients,” said Becker. “We are excited to continue serving the investment management industry with the support of the firm’s deep special situations, private equity M&A, funds and tax capabilities, all of which are in high demand in the Boston market.”