Maurice Allen, Ropes & Gray‘s UK office founder and former senior partner is to join DLA Piper on 1 February as a consultant to develop the firm’s finance sector strategy.
As well as remaining as a consultant to Ropes & Gray, Allen (pictured) will report to Charles Severs, managing director of practice groups and Jan Geert Meents, managing director of sectors and clients at DLA.
A spokesperson at Ropes & Gray said the move had been under discussion for some time, and the firm was ‘comfortable with Maurice working on a consultancy basis for both firms, so long as the consultancies are scoped and more importantly, will operate on a conflict-free basis.’
Allen announced his retirement as a partner at Ropes & Gray at the end of last year, and the firm has no current plans to replace him in role of senior partner, created in July 2014 when the dual role of co-managing partner shared by Allen and Mike Goetz was split.
Allen is a seasoned finance lawyer, working at Clifford Chance, Weil, Gotshal & Manges, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and White & Case before joining Ropes & Gray with Goetz to spearhead the launch of the firm’s London office in 2009.
His clients have included borrowers such as Liberty Global, Ahold and Bain Capital; and lenders such as Avenue, Highbridge, Ares, Sankaty, Partners Group, CVC Credit, MV Credit and AMB. Bank clients have included Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs.
Speaking to Legal Business in 2013, Allen said: ‘I was very lucky that Ropes & Gray came along, otherwise I could have reached a low point at Freshfields. But no more moving now – this will be my last home.’
kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk
Read more: ‘Life during Law – Maurice Allen’
