Sunday, November 8, 2009

DLA Piper

DLA Piper

DLA Piper
Headquarters	Decentralized
No. of Offices	65
No. of Attorneys	3,500+
Major Practice Areas	General Practice
Date Founded	2005 (merger)
Company Type	Law Firm

is one of the largest law firms in the world and it is the only firm with more than 3,500 lawyers in North America and Europe. DLA Piper is a legal services organization whose members and affiliates are separate and distinct legal entities.[1]

Together, the organization boasts more than 3,500 lawyers in 29 countries and 65 offices throughout the world. DLA Piper was formed as a result of the 2005 merger of San Diego-based Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich LLP, UK-based DLA LLP (previously Dibb Lupton Alsop 1996-2000), and Piper Rudnick LLP (itself a 1999 merger of Baltimore-based Piper & Marbury andChicago-based Rudnick & Wolfe). In 2007, the firm had more than $2.1 billion in revenue, making it one of the highest grossing law firms in the world.

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.

[edit]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.

[edit]Staff Reductions

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. It notably only offered staff statutory severance pay amounting to £350 per full year of service worked, staff qualified for this only after 2 years service in line with legislation. DLA notably refused to consult on this payment, despite its advice to do so to its own clients - and the redundancy pay-outs were considerably below those offered by DLA's City rivals Allen & Overy and Linklaters who offered severance pay-outs several times the DLA offer. 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.[2][3]

[edit]Notable mandates

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.