This article contains content that is written like an advertisement .(February 2019) |
No. of attorneys | 4,255 (2022) [1] |
---|---|
Major practice areas | Arbitration, Banking, Competition and Trade, Corporate Crime, Corporate Finance, Employment, Energy, Government Affairs, Hospitality and Leisure, Insurance, Intellectual Property, Litigation, Mergers and Acquisitions, Pensions, Private Equity, Real Estate, Restructuring, Securities, Tax, Technology |
Key people | |
Revenue | US$3.68 billion (2022) [1] |
Profit per equity partner | US$2.8 million (2022) [1] |
Date founded | First parent firm founded 1764; current organization dates to 2005 (by merger) |
Company type | Swiss Verein (2 LLPs) |
Website | dlapiper.com |
DLA Piper is a law firm with offices in over 40 countries across the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. [4] In 2021, it was the third largest law firm in the United States by revenue. [5]
Founded in 2005 through the merger between three law firms: San Diego–based Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich LLP, Baltimore-based Piper Rudnick LLP and United Kingdom–based DLA LLP. DLA Piper is composed of two partnerships operating under a shared global board and structured as a Swiss Verein. [6]
DLA Piper's origins can be traced back to four law firms: Dibb Lupton Broomhead, Alsop Stevens, Piper & Marbury, and Rudnick & Wolfe. [7] [8] [9] Dibb Lupton Broomhead was a UK law firm that was formed in 1988 after the merger of Dibb Lupton and Broomhead & Neals. [10] In 1996, the firm merged with the Liverpool-based law firm, Alsop Wilkinson, and became Dibb Lupton Alsop (DLA). [11] Meanwhile, in the United States, Piper & Marbury was founded in Baltimore, Maryland, and merged with Chicago-based Rudnick & Wolfe in 1999 to form Piper Marbury Rudnick & Wolfe. [12]
DLA Piper was formed in 2005 after a merger between DLA, Piper Rudnick, and Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich. [13] [14] The merger created one of the largest law firms in the world at the time and the largest firm in the UK. [15] In 2006 the firm's name was shortened from DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US LLP to DLA Piper. [16] In 2005, DLA Piper launched New Perimeter, an international pro bono initiative that provides legal assistance in underserved regions. [17]
Throughout this period, the firm continued to open offices in Mexico City and São Paulo, as well as expanding its presence in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. [18] [19] [20] [21] The firm also grew in the Australasian region through a series of mergers and acquisitions, including an exclusive alliance with Australian firm Phillips Fox in 2006. [22] [23] Also in 2006, DLA Piper expanded its Middle Eastern presence by opening an outpost in Doha, Qatar, [24] later opening an office in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates in 2008. [25]
In 2008, DLA Piper opened an office in Kuwait as a joint venture with Kuwaiti law firm Al Wagayan, Al Awadhi & Al Saif to provide legal services to international and local clients operating under the DLA Piper Kuwait moniker. [26] In the US, the firm expanded into markets such as Houston, Texas, where it opened a practice focused on energy law in 2008. [27]
In 2010, DLA Piper entered into an cooperative agreement with Brazilian firm Campos Mello Avogados, located in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. [28] In 2011, DLA Phillips Fox (Australia) integrated with DLA Piper to become DLA Piper Australia. [29] DLA Phillips Fox (New Zealand) followed suit, becoming become DLA Piper New Zealand in 2015. [30] By February 2012, DLA became the largest firm in the world by headcount with over 4,000 attorneys, [31] and opened an office in Paris through a partnership with Frieh Bouhenic. [32]
In 2013-2014, the firm expanded to Seoul, Indonesia, Namibia, Algeria and Mexico City. [33] [34] [35] [36] In 2014, it named Simon Levine managing partner, Global co-Chair and Global co-CEO. [37] His term was extended through 2024 to align with the appointment of Frank Ryan as Americas Chair, Global co-Chair and Global co-CEO in 2021. [38] In 2015, DLA Piper opened its Dublin office, [39] later opening an office in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2016. [40] The Portuguese firm ABBC [41] and the Danish firm LETT joined DLA Piper in March 2017. [42] In 2023, DLA Piper entered into the digital space and launched TOKO, a blockchain-based tokenisation platform with its Aldersgate Digital Ledger Solutions (DLS) group. [43]
DLA Piper has 80 offices in more than 40 countries across the Americas, Asia Pacific, Australasia, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. [44]
DLA Piper New Zealand is in New Zealand [45] [46] with offices in Auckland and Wellington, [47] DLA Piper New Zealand provides counsel to private and public companies, central and local government entities, charities and other organisations. [48]
DLA Piper employees were the twelfth-largest donor to President Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign. [49] According to OpenSecrets, DLA Piper employees donated $2.19 million to federal candidates during the 2012 election cycle, 73% to Democrats. [50] By comparison, during that same period Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld employees donated $2.56 million, 66% to Democrats, [50] while oil conglomerate ExxonMobil employees donated $2.66 million, 88% to Republicans. [51] Since 1990, DLA Piper has contributed $16.97 million to federal campaigns, and spent over $1 million on lobbying since 2002. [52]
In 2010, DLA Piper represented Paul Ceglia in his claim that he hired Mark Zuckerberg to create a website that became Facebook and that under the agreement, Ceglia was entitled to ownership of 84 percent of Facebook, then worth multiple billions of dollars. [53] Zuckerberg and Facebook responded that Ceglia had hired Zuckerberg to work on an unrelated site, but Ceglia had fraudulently altered that contract to make it appear to cover Facebook. A DLA Piper attorney told the Wall Street Journal that although he had not seen the original document, he had "absolutely 100% confidence that [Mr. Ceglia's] agreement is authentic." [54] Ceglia's document was later found to be fraudulent, and in 2014, Facebook and Zuckerberg sued DLA Piper and others, claiming Ceglia's lawyers "knew or should have known that the [initial] lawsuit was a fraud." [55] The suit was later dismissed. [56] [57]
In June 2020, Squire Patton Boggs filed Ferrellgas Partners LP et al. v. DLA Piper LLP US in Kansas, [58] on behalf of former firm client Ferrellgas, for a breach of fiduciary duty. [59] [60]
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, formerly Cleary, Gottlieb, Friendly & Cox and Cleary, Gottlieb, Friendly, Steen & Hamilton, is an American multinational law firm headquartered at One Liberty Plaza in New York City. Known as a white shoe law firm, Cleary employs over 1,200 lawyers worldwide.
White & Case LLP is a global white-shoe law firm based in New York City. Founded in 1901, the firm has 46 offices in 31 countries worldwide.
Hill & Barlow was a law firm in Boston, Massachusetts that was dissolved on December 7, 2002 after 106 years of business. Founded in 1899, the firm had been one of the city's oldest and most elite firms, and was also the 12th largest in Boston at the time of its dissolution, employing 138 lawyers. The firm was founded by Arthur D. Hill, known for defending the anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti. Hill began his practice in 1895 and joined forces in 1899 with Robert Homans and Robert Barlow to form Hill & Barlow. Nevertheless, the firm celebrated its 100 year anniversary in 1895.
Orrick is an international law firm founded in San Francisco, California. The firm advises on transactions, litigation and regulatory matters for venture-backed companies, public companies, E&I funds, financial institutions and governments.
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A Swiss association is a type of corporation in Swiss law. It is similar to the Anglo-American voluntary association. Unlike in Germany, a Swiss association does not need to be registered in order to obtain legal personality, but must be registered if it "conducts a commercial operation". An association can serve as a non-profit organization (NPO) or non-governmental organization (NGO) and this form is used by several Swiss sections of international NGOs such as Amnesty International, and the World Wildlife Fund, by business firms or by international organizations such as the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). The form can also be used by political parties and alliances, such as trade unions.
Bracewell LLP is an international law firm based in Houston, Texas, that began in 1945. The firm has approximately 350 lawyers, and has United States offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., San Antonio, Seattle, Dallas and Austin, as well as offices in Dubai, Paris and London.
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Hogan Lovells is an American-British law firm co-headquartered in London and Washington, DC. The firm was formed in 2010 by the merger of the American law firm Hogan & Hartson and the British law firm Lovells. As of 2022, the firm employed about 2,500 lawyers, making it the sixth largest law firm in the world.
Paul D. Ceglia is an American fugitive. He is the founder of businesses such as Greensprings Natural Cemetery, StreetFax, PageBook, and Allegany Pellets. In 2010, Ceglia brought a lawsuit against Facebook, Inc., claiming ownership of 84% of the company. The judge dismissed Ceglia's claim as fraudulent. Ceglia and his family were found to have vanished on May 1, 2015 after he cut off a GPS tracker. In 2018 he was arrested in Ecuador, where he remains after that country denied the U.S. Justice Department's extradition request.
Sir Nigel Knowles is the former global co-chairman of the law firm DLA Piper and since 2017 newly appointed Chairman of DWF LLP. He was also appointed as the Chairman of recruitment firm Brewster Partners before resigning on 25 November 2021 following allegations of furlough fraud made by whistle blowers and reported by The Times newspaper and the BBC.
Geert Van Calster is a Belgian lawyer and legal scholar, focusing on conflict of laws, international trade law, EU and international environmental law, EU economic law, and investment and commercial arbitration. He is full professor of Law at KU Leuven, was the head of its department of European and International Law for 11 years between 2009 and 2020, and is a senior fellow at KU Leuven's Centre for Global Governance Studies. He is a former director of the Centre for Advanced Legal Studies at KU Leuven and former program director for the Master of Energy and Environmental Law (2002-2012). He is also a visiting professor at Monash University (Melbourne), at King's College London, and a senior fellow at Melbourne University School of Law. He is adjunct professor at American University, a former visiting lecturer at the University of Oxford and a former visiting professor at the China-EU School of Law in Beijing and Erasmus University, Rotterdam. Between 1994 and 2015, he was affiliated as of counsel (practising) with international law firms, respectively SJ Berwin; Andersen Legal; Dibb, Lupton, Alsop; and DLA Piper. He now runs his own, independent legal practice. He was called to the bar in 1999. He hosts a blog posting mostly on international dispute resolution at www.gavclaw.com.
Jared Genser is an international human rights lawyer who serves as managing director of the law firm Perseus Strategies, LLC, Special Advisor on the Responsibility to Protect to the Organization of American States, and Co-Founder and General Counsel to the Neurorights Foundation. Genser is U.S. Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, where he was previously a Senior Fellow. Referred to by the New York Times as "The Extractor," he has served as pro bono counsel to five Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, including the last three Laureates who won their Prize while imprisoned- Aung San Suu Kyi, Liu Xiaobo, and Ales Bialiatski -- as well as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Elie Wiesel. Other former clients have included former Czech Republic President Václav Havel, Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Venezuelan politician Leopoldo López, and former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed. He was previously an associate of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University from 2014 to 2016 and a visiting fellow with the National Endowment for Democracy from 2006 to 2007. Coming from his experience freeing a political prisoner as a law student in 2001, he founded the non-profit Freedom Now and earlier in his career was named by the National Law Journal as one of "40 Under 40: Washington's Rising Stars."
S&L Advocates is a Ugandan law firm headquartered in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. It is a leading business law firm that was founded in 1980 by Paulo Sebalu and Godfrey Serunkuma Lule. The firm is a member of DLA Piper and the DLA Piper Africa Group. The firm's advocates are members of various professional bodies, including the International Bar Association, the Commonwealth Lawyers Association, the East African Law Society and the Uganda Law Society.
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Thomas Townend Dibb was an English lawyer and one of the founders of DLA Piper.
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