DLA Piper

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DLA Piper
Headquarters	Decentralized
No. of Offices	64
No. of Attorneys	3,700+
Major Practice Areas	General Practice
Date Founded	2005 (merger)
Company Type	Law Firm
Website	dlapiper.com

DLA Piper is the largest law firm in the United States by number of attorneys.¹ It is also one of the largest law firms in the world and it is the only firm with more than 1,500 lawyers on each side of the Atlantic. DLA Piper is a legal services organization whose members and affiliates are separate and distinct legal entities.[1]

Together, the organization boasts more than 3,700 lawyers in 25 countries and 64 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 and Chicago-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.

1 Management
2 Services
3 Clients
4 Awards
5 Political Contributions
6 Offices
7 External links

[edit] Management

The firm is managed globally by three joint chief executive officers: Nigel Knowles, Frank Burch, and Lee Miller. The three were previously the managing partners of legacy firms (DLA, Piper & Marbury, and Rudnick & Wolfe, respectively). The Chairman of the firm's Global Board is former U.S. Democratic Senator George Mitchell, who chaired the peace negotiations which led to the 1998 Belfast Peace Agreement and for which he won various awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the UN (UNESCO) Peace Prize. Senator Mitchell is currently well known for the 2006-2007 assignment investigating steroid use in Major League Baseball, which culminated in the so-called "Mitchell Report".

[edit] Services

DLA Piper offers a comprehensive series of services globally through 12 core service groups:

- Commercial Contracts
- Corporate
- Employment, Pensions and Benefits
- Finance
- Intellectual Property
- Litigation and Arbitration
- Projects and Infrastructure
- Real Estate
- Regulatory and Government Affairs
- Restructuring
- Tax
- Technology and Media

[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 half of the top 250 Fortune 500 clients and nearly half of the FTSE 350 or their subsidiaries.

[edit] Awards

Current awards held by DLA Piper include:

- Dispute Resolution Team of the Year at the Legal Business Awards 2008
- TMT/IP Team of the Year at the British Legal Awards 2007
- Named a "Legal Market Trailblazer" by BTI Consulting Group
- Ranked #8 on the list of "Top Ten Family-Friendly Firms" compiled by Yale Law Women in 2007
- Recognized as a "2007 Best Law Firm for Women" by Working Mother Magazine and Flex-Time Lawyers
- #1 on the 2007 American Lawyer Pro Bono ranking for total lawyer participation
- Mid Market Law Firm of the Year at the Acquisitions Monthly Awards 2007

[edit] Political Contributions

DLA Piper, like many firms, makes contributions to various politicians and candidates. For the 2008 Presidential primaries, DLA Piper's largest contribution is $10,000 to Hillary Clinton; by contrast, there were no contributions to her main competitors, Barack Obama and John Edwards. On the Republican side, Rudolph Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson received contributions, while Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee did not. [2]

In addition, DLA Piper attorneys John Merrigan & Matthew Bernstein are major money-raisers for Hillary Clinton. DLA Piper employees have bundled over $470,000 to Mrs. Clinton's campaign, making DLA Piper Clinton's leading contributor as of February 28, 2008. [3] [4] [5]