DLA Piper: Difference between revisions

DLA Piper
Headquarters	Decentralized
No. of offices	68
No. of attorneys	3,500
Major practice areas	General Practice
Key people	Frank Burch, Global Chairman; Sir Nigel Knowles, Joint CEO; Lee I. Miller, Joint CEO
Date founded	2005 (merger)
Company type	International Legal Practice
Website	DLA Piper

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Revision as of 16:29, 5 August 2010

DLA Piper is an international legal practice headquartered in New York. Together, the DLA Piper employs more than 3,500 lawyers in 30 countries and 68 offices, making it one of the largest law firms in the world.

History

DLA Piper was formed as a result of the 2005 merger of three firms: San Diego-based Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich LLP, Piper Rudnick LLP and the UK's DLA LLP.

DLA itself was the result of a mid-90s merger between two UK firms, Dibb Lupton and Alsop Wilkinson, while Piper Rudnick was the product of a 1999 union between Baltimore-based Piper & Marbury and Chicago-based Rudnick & Wolfe.

Management

The firm is managed globally by two joint chief executive officers: Nigel Knowles and Lee Miller. The Chairman of the firm's Global Board is Frank Burch who was formerly one of the joint chief executives. Former U.S. Democratic Senator George Mitchell was the firm's previous Chairman.

Clients

DLA Piper's clients range from multinational, Global 1,000 and Fortune 500 enterprises to emerging companies developing industry-leading technologies. DLA Piper represents more than 140 of the top 250 Fortune 500 clients and nearly half of the FTSE 350 or their subsidiaries.

Staff reductions

In February 2009, DLA Piper cut 80 associates at its offices in the United States, equating to 5% of its US-based lawyers, and planned to cut 54 jobs in Asia the following March.^[1]

In August 2008, DLA laid off 5 people in its TMT department.
In December 2008, DLA laid off 15 lawyers and 16 support staff.
In February 2009, DLA announced a 90 day redundancy consultation in which it envisaged making up to 30 lawyer and 110 support staff reductions. The firm offered staff statutory severance pay amounting to £350 per full year of service worked, staff qualified for the payout after 2 years service in line with legislation. The redundancy consultation ended in mid-May 2009 when it was confirmed that there had been a total of 24 lawyer and 100 support staff reductions. The losses were mainly in Finance, Corporate and Real Estate and included some 45 voluntary redundancies.[1][2]

Notable mandates

Advised a bank consortium composed of SEB, BayernLB, BBVA, BNP Paribas, NIBC and SMBC on the financing of the first Danish motorway project within the framework of a public private partnership (PPP).
Advised KEB Asia Finance Limited as the mandated lead arranger for the issuance of US$40 million of notes. The transaction involved KEB Asia Finance Limited as the mandated lead arranger in the issuance of US$14 million Tranche A guaranteed floating rate notes due 2013 and US$26 million Tranche B floating rate notes due 2013 by KEB Capital Inc.
Developed the first Environment, Health and Safety regulations and guidance materials for the building and construction sector in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
Advised Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and RBS on their provision of a five year £200 million senior debt funding facility to TelecityGroup plc.
Advised the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank in relation to a €71 million syndicated loan to Eólica Bulgaria E.A.D., to finance the development of Suvorovo Wind Farm.
Won an international mandate as Christie's external counsel in May 2009.
Advised Oman Investment Fund on a £445 million joint venture in June 2009.
Successfully represented bmibaby and bmi against a claim brought by Durham Tees Valley airport in the High Court for £12 million in alleged losses as a result of bmibaby's decision to cease operating two B737 aircrafts based at the airport in 2009.
Advised Deloitte on the administration of 28 companies in the retail conglomerate Mosaic Fashions in 2009.
Advised on the administration of Zavvi, Whittard, Faith Shoes and Passion for Perfume in 2009.
Counseled Heckmann Corp, through its Hong Kong and Phoenix branches, in its $625 million of China Water and Drinks Inc in 2008.
DLA Piper Madrid advised a consortium of banks including Caja de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad de Madrid, Banco Sabadell SA, Banco Popular Espanol SA, ICO, Banco Español de Crédito SA and Caixa Geral de Depósitos in a €1.2 billion for forestry company Grupo Empresarial Ence SA in 2008.

Awards

Current awards held by DLA Piper include:

Received the “Outstanding Achievement Award” at the Legal Business Awards 2010.

Named "Law Firm of the year Award (31+ partners)" and "Corporate Recovery Award" at the Yorkshire Lawyer Awards 2009.

Named “Deal Structuring Law Firm of the Year” at the unquote British Private Equity Awards 2009.

Received the “Environmental Excellence Award” at the CSR Summit Awards 2009.

Named "Corporate Law Firm of the Year" at the Belgian Legal Awards 2009.

Named "European Copyright Firm of the Year" at the Managing Intellectual Property (MIP) Global Awards 2009.

Won "Sustainability Initiative Award" from ITP Publishing Group in May 2009.

Offices

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♠ Australia and New Zealand offices are those of alliance firm DLA Phillips Fox

+ Austrian and Central European offices practice as DLA Piper Weiss-Tessbach Rechtsanwälte GmbH

^ Egyptian office practice as DLA Matouk Bassiouny

- South African offices practice as DLA Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr

~ Georgian office practices as DLA Piper Gvinadze & Partners LP

References

^ Ruckin, Claire (14 May 2009). "DLA consultation closes with 124 staff laid off". Incisive Media Limited. Retrieved 8 January 2010.

External links

Official site
Twitter Profile (Real Estate Practice Group Twitter Profile)
“Goodbye 'Sanctuary' Cities,” by DLA Piper partner William P. Cook, was an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal on July 30, 2010 about Arizona's controversial immigration act.

[legalweek-1] Ruckin, Claire (14 May 2009). "DLA consultation closes with 124 staff laid off". Incisive Media Limited. Retrieved 8 January 2010.

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@@ Line 184: / Line 184: @@
 == External links ==
 *[http://www.dlapiper.com Official site]
-*[http://twitter.com/dla_piper_news Twitter Profile]
+*[http://twitter.com/dla_piper_news Twitter Profile] ([http://twitter.com/dlarealestate Real Estate Practice Group Twitter Profile)]
+*[http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB10001424052748703940904575395691425206132.html “Goodbye 'Sanctuary' Cities,”] by DLA Piper partner [http://www.dlapiper.com/william_cook William P. Cook], was an op-ed published in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_street_journal Wall Street Journal] on July 30, 2010 about Arizona's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SB_1070#Reaction controversial] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SB_1070 immigration act].
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