Legal Business

DLA Piper enters booming contract lawyer market with Peerpoint-style alumni venture

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Innovation DLA Piper
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DLA Piper is to launch a flexible working unit to rival Allen & Overy’s (A&O) Peerpoint and other alumni-based ventures following criticism over the lack of flexibility within the firm’s remuneration structure.

With firms under pressure from a new generation of lawyers unwilling or unable to work the long hours expected in the City, DLA Piper is finalising plans to have a pool of alumni it can call on to work flexible hours or send on secondments to key clients.

The project is being driven by DLA Piper’s co-chief executive Simon Levine with support from service delivery and quality director Stephen Allen, who left his post at Big Four accountancy PwC early last year with a remit to modernise how legal work is carried out at DLA Piper. Allen also worked at Berwin Leighton Paisner as its director of innovation and helped establish its Managed Legal Service unit.

The new contract lawyer unit, initially set to be staffed by alumni, will be in place by the end of the year. No partnership vote was needed to introduce the enterprise.

A DLA Piper partner told Legal Business: ‘It will be similar to Peerpoint. Not everyone wants to work 80 hours a week so this will give us the flexibility to keep our talent from going to one of the host of contract lawyer businesses that have been formed in recent years.’

The move follows the creation of A&O’s Peerpoint and Pinsent Masons’ freelance lawyer service Vario in 2013, while Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer launched its rent-an-alumni service Freshfields Continuum in the summer of 2012.

A DLA Piper spokesperson said: ‘We constantly look to improve the quality of our service delivery to clients, and in response to client feedback we have developed a number of solutions to ensure that we continue to meet their demands whilst ensuring that we can attract and retain the best talent. This includes not only looking at flexible working, but also legal project management, alternative resourcing platforms and better using technology as part of our strategy going forward.’

Research by A&O’s Peerpoint found late last year that 63% of general counsel supplement their legal team with contract lawyers and 74% expected to be doing so within five years.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

For more on the contract lawyer market see: So demanding – are contract lawyers business delivering for clients?

Legal Business

DLA builds LatAm presence with Colombia pact as firm hopes to leverage Spanish relationships

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Latin America DLA Piper
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Just three months after sealing its entry into Canada by combining with local firm Davis, DLA Piper has continued its march across the Americas by signing a cooperation agreement that will see it launch in Colombia.

After negotiations which were handled by former Spanish president José Maria Aznar, a senior advisor to DLA Piper’s global board, Colombian firm Martinez Neira Abogados (MNA) has signed a cooperation agreement with DLA Piper to become the firm’s third South American offering.

The firm hopes to link the nearly 20 year-old Colombian outfit with its growing presence across the Americas and its Spanish offering which, under the leadership of Europe and Middle East managing director Juan Picon, has become one of the firm’s best performing offices.

Spearheaded by managing partner and banking specialist Nestor Martinez, alongside corporate partners Camilo Beltran and Acosta Ospina, the Bogota-based firm has three recommendations in The Legal 500 for banking and finance, corporate and M&A, and dispute resolution. In 2013, the 15-lawyer firm handled a total value of M&A instructions worth over $3bn.

The agreement, which will rename the firm DLA Piper Martinez Neira, will also give DLA Piper access to lawyers in six other South American markets, namely Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, through the legal network LatamLex Abogados. DLA Piper already has a presence in Venezuela with DLA Interjuris Abogados and a cooperation agreement with Campos Mello Advogados in Brazil.

‘MNA is a major player in the Latin American market and an ideal partner for us,’ said DLA Piper’s New York-based global co-chair Roger Meltzer. ‘Colombia is a key jurisdiction with particularly attractive opportunities, having experienced an historic economic boom in the last decade with strong prospects for continued growth. This agreement is just the latest step in our plan to continue to expand in Latin and Central America, and also fits extremely well with our existing platform in the market and our practices in Spain, New York, Miami and Canada.’

Martinez, who will join DLA Piper’s Latin America committee, added: ‘DLA Piper’s footprint mirrors incredibly well with Colombia’s trading activity with the United States, Canada, Spain and Asia, as well as with our firm’s practices and sector experience. We are very excited about this relationship and look forward to the opportunities it will provide for clients of both of our firms around the world.’

Colombia has experienced rapid growth in the past five years, but after growing GDP by a solid 4.6% in 2014 on the back of strong consumption and investment, the hydrocarbon-driven economy is suffering from weakened growth in 2015 following the fall in oil prices.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

A Noble pursuit – DLA Piper launches corp fin boutique to build TMT profile

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Corporate DLA Piper
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DLA Piper has made its first foray into the consultancy business, launching corporate finance advisory arm Noble Street to focus on media and sports ventures that have been neglected by traditional banks.

Targeting the shortage of capital within the media, entertainment, technology and sports industries, Noble Street will advise clients on opportunities available to fast-growing companies in these areas. The business will be based in London, though is expected to target clients in the Middle East and Asia alongside the UK.

The creation of Noble Street follows a string of consultancy openings by law firms, including Bird & Bird’s IT projects business Baseline and Eversheds’ procurement and compliance arm Eversheds Consulting. But while there has been a series of finance advisory boutiques launched in the City by investment bankers since the credit crunch, this is the first corporate finance house set up by a top 50 law firm in recent years.

Other comparable ventures have seen media law boutique Wiggin launch Wiggin Executive Producing Group to source finance and distribution opportunities for film, TV and computer games. Olswang backed the independent boutique LongAcre Partners in June 2000, selling its stake in the business seven year later.

Noble Street will be led by Anthony Mosawi, a film financier recruited by the 4,000-lawyer firm to launch the new venture. Mosawi, who began his career in the late 1990s as a lawyer at Paramount Pictures before founding California boutique Mayhew Entertainment in 2005. The company has raised nearly $500m in financing for opportunities since 2010 and Noble Street will look to use that knowledge to pair investors with clients in the media, tech and sports industries.

Mosawi will work alongside DLA Piper global co-chairman Sir Nigel Knowles and the firm’s head of media and entertainment, Chris Hanson, to run the venture. Knowles commented: ‘We are delighted to have Anthony on board. He is an entrepreneur with substantial US media financing experience. Noble Street is a hugely exciting venture, marrying the specialist media and tech sector knowledge that many bulge-bracket investment banks lack, and the global footprint that the niche media advisory firms do not have.’

Mosawi said: ‘The scale and size of [DLA Piper’s] client base and wider network are tremendous assets, supporting the new group to add value to the most ambitious ventures.’

At the start of the year DLA Piper’s US subsidiary, Blue Edge Lab, launched cyber security tool CyberTrak in 23 countries.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Subscribers can click here to read Legal Business’ 2015 cover feature on DLA Piper

Legal Business

Partner promotions: DLA Piper promotes 44 to partner in corporate heavy round

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Nearly 23% of the 44 lawyers making partner at DLA Piper in its 2015 round have been promoted in its corporate practice as the firm seeks to create a stronger M&A base and boost cross-border work.

With the firm having placed a greater emphasis on its corporate practice and integrating its client base across its international network, 10 corporate lawyers across 10 offices made the grade. While the firm bolstered its corporate ranks in London, Melbourne, Cologne and Rome, the remaining six corporate promotions were made in the US. The increased focus on the corporate practice is also hoped to boost profitability.

Nine lawyers were made up in the UK across five of its offices. Four of these came in London, where litigators James Carter and Tony Payne were made up alongside corporate lawyer Melanie James and restructuring specialist Neil Riley. This marks a rise on the number of UK lawyers made up in recent years, with seven British lawyers joining the partnership in 2014 and just four in 2013.The other major focus geographically was the US with 20 of the 44 new partners residing there.

The size of the round took a slight dip, down one on 2014 and, as well as corporate, saw promotions made in its finance and projects, intellectual property (IP) and technology, litigation and regulatory, and real estate practices.

London-based Simon Levine (pictured), global co-CEO of DLA Piper, said: ‘The quality of our people is crucial to our ambition to be the leading global business law firm advising the leading mature and emerging companies wherever they do business.’

San Diego-based Jay Rains, global co-CEO, added: ‘Our ability to develop the next generation of talent is a key component of our global strategy and a linchpin of our ongoing growth and service delivery to clients.’

Full list of DLA Piper’s 2015 partner promotions by office:

Australia

Melbourne

Joel Cox, Corporate

Sydney

Astrid Beemster, Real Estate

China

Hong Kong

Ashley Bell, Litigation & Regulatory

Shanghai

Lillian Duan, Real Estate

France, Paris

Karine Disdier-Mikus, IP and Technology

Jonathan Rofé, IP and Technology

Germany

Cologne

Jan Eltzschig, Corporate

Frankfurt

Torsten Pokropp, Finance & Projects

Christian Schoop, Litigation & Regulatory

Italy

Milan

Alessandra Garzya, Employment

Christian Montinari, Tax

Rome

Giulio Maroncelli, Corporate

Japan, Tokyo

Lawrence Carter, Employment

Thailand, Bangkok

Benjamin Hirasawa, Real Estate

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Katie Montazeri, IP and Technology

United Kingdom

Birmingham

Gareth Stokes, IP and Technology

Leeds

Matthew Duncombe, IP and Technology

Barney Smedley, Restructuring

London

Melanie James, Corporate

James Carter, Litigation & Regulatory

Tony Payne, Litigation & Regulatory

Neil Riley, Restructuring

Manchester

Joseph Frew, Finance & Projects

Sheffield

Vikki McKay, Real Estate

United States

Baltimore

Brendan Kennedy, Litigation & Regulatory

Chicago

Allen Ashley, Finance & Projects

David Bamlango, Finance & Projects

Mariah DiGrino, Real Estate

Shari Helft Lennon, Real Estate

Houston

Steven Torello, Corporate

Aaron Fountain, IP and Technology

New York

Nickie Cheney, Corporate

Victor Levy, Finance

Mark Deckman, Litigation & Regulatory

Northern Virginia

Thomas Hendershot, Corporate

Philadelphia

Brian Benjet, Litigation & Regulatory

Sacramento

David Richardson, Corporate

San Diego

Tiffany Miller, IP and Technology

Robert Williams, IP and Technology

Brooke Killian Kim, Litigation & Regulatory

Seattle

Andrew Ledbetter, Corporate

Short Hills

David Schwartz, Corporate

Washington DC

Randi Bernstein, Finance

Samuel Knowles, Litigation & Regulatory

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Middle East: DLA Piper opens second office in Saudi Arabia with plans for a third

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Middle East and Africa DLA Piper
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Following its Canada merger last month with Vancouver-based Davis, DLA Piper has embarked on further international expansion opening a second office in Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah and plans for a third in the country.

DLA first opened in Saudi Arabia in 2006, with an office in the country’s capital Riyadh, and though it has had a base of operations in the major urban centre of Jeddah previously, this marks the first official office in the city. It will be run by legal director Rakesh Bassi, who joined DLA Piper last year from Clifford Chance.

The third office opening is planned before the end of the year and will take the total number of Middle East offices to eight. It will be located in the country’s eastern province and will service both locally based clients and those based in Bahrain.

Peter Somekh, DLA Piper’s Middle East managing partner said: ‘Saudi Arabia has always been a key country for both the regional and international firm and our expanded presence in the Kingdom is testament to our continued focus and investment. We already have over 20 lawyers permanently based in Saudi, 18 of whom are Saudi nationals and all are internationally qualified, and we’re looking to further expand the team over the coming year.’

Eyad Reda, managing partner for Saudi Arabia added: ‘Our focus for the last five years has been to build a client base around the sectors that are key to the Kingdom and where the wider firm has strong expertise, namely banking and finance, energy, technology, hospitality and leisure, and real estate.’

DLA Piper’s Canadian merger last month added around 250 Canadian lawyers, including 112 partners to the firm’s 4,000-lawyer operation. It becomes just the fourth international firm to have a major presence in the country, following Norton Rose’s merger with Ogilvy Renault in 2011, and SNR Denton’s triple merger with Fraser Milner Casgrain and Salans in 2013, while Baker & McKenzie has had a presence in Canada since 1962. DLA Piper has a presence in 33 countries around the world.

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

DLA Piper’s Canada merger to build on west coast roots and target Toronto

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Legal mergers DLA Piper
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DLA Piper ended its long wait to seal a merger in Canada last month after partners at Vancouver-based Davis voted to become the 33rd country in the firm’s sprawling empire.

The merger, due to complete this month, will add around 250 Canadian lawyers, including 112 partners, to DLA Piper’s 4,000-lawyer operation. While it is used to seeing the international LLP of DLA making acquisitions, the deal is the largest carried out by the US LLP and the Canadian firm will operate in a verein structure with the US branch.

Legal Business

Comment: Life after Sir Nigel – They built it, now what?

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DLA Piper’s new head Simon Levine jokes about avoiding becoming the David Moyes to his high-profile predecessor’s Alex Ferguson, but you could make a stronger case that Sir Nigel Knowles’ (pictured) transformative track record at DLA Piper is closer to making him the firm’s Tony Blair.

Knowles took over an institution amid a period of upheaval and had to fight to establish his authority, which he duly did with a mix of flair, charisma and vision. Because those qualities – not in abundance in the legal profession at executive level during the 1990s – were supported by astute operational point-men like Andrew Darwin, it proved an incredibly potent formula.

DLA Piper remains the most upwardly mobile UK-bred law firm over the last generation by some distance. In our recent 25-year anniversary edition, Knowles was cited more than any other individual as a defining figure for the legal industry over that period, a striking endorsement for a man once far outside the profession’s elite club.

But, despite having delivered huge success, as with Blair and the Labour Party, the firm wearied somewhat of the huge profile and globe-trotting that accompanied Knowles, especially as DLA’s meteoric rise was severely challenged by the banking crisis and its operational weaknesses exposed. Vision is fantastic – its abundance helped DLA defy the pundits for 20 years – but you never escape the hard graft of implementation. The ground-breaking 2005 US tie-up is Knowles’ defining achievement but still a work in progress.

The candid view from the firm’s partners is that quality, consistency and discipline need to improve if the firm is to fulfil its ambitions. More than that, DLA Piper has a way to go before it operates as a truly integrated, cohesive professional services giant.

All in, it’s time for a changing of the guard and the good news is that Levine looks a promising fit for a very particular skill set. While Tony Angel had famously been brought in to supply the rigour the firm needed, there is a limit to what his technocratic style could achieve at DLA, a hugely different institution to his former firm Linklaters.

By all accounts, Levine brings much of the humour and down-to-earth qualities associated with the firm along with a greater attention to detail than his predecessor. He also has the credibility of being a highly successful practitioner and practice leader, a notable tilt towards the US preference for owner-managers.

It is just as well that Levine looks safe from any Ed Miliband comparisons because the organisational challenges that face DLA Piper remain huge. Judged over the last ten years, the firm has yet to entirely live up to its own billing. The firm is just as much in contention to be a different kind of world beater, but with a little bit more of the old magic and momentum it could achieve more. A lot more. Whether it ultimately cracks some of these operational challenges will be as much a defining factor in the evolution of the global legal market in the years ahead as DLA’s rise was in the previous 20.

alex.novarese@legalease.co.uk

For more Legal Business analysis of DLA Piper’s succession see: Simon says – DLA Piper gears up for a life after Nigel

Legal Business

‘A strategic priority’: DLA Piper builds competition team with Dentons’ Sam Szlezinger

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Strategic recruitment DentonsDLA Piper
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As litigation teams in the City gear up for more competition-based damages cases following recent changes to legislation, DLA Piper has brought in Dentons‘ competition heavyweight Sam Szlezinger to bolster its team.

The first partner in London to resign from Dentons following the January tie-up with Chinese firm Dacheng, Szlezinger is set to leave after over 20 years at the firm, including the last 14 as a partner. However, he has been told he will have to work a notice period that won’t expire until the start of 2016.

When he does join, it will be as a partner in DLA Piper’s competition team, which is part of the litigation and regulatory group. Litigation teams are being built up across the City after a directive proposed by the European Commission to make it easier for individuals and businesses to sue companies that have formed cartels was signed into law at the end of 2014 – and must be implemented by EU members by 27 December 2016.

Steve Sly, global co-head of the litigation and regulatory group at DLA Piper, said: ‘The continued development of our competition and antitrust practice is a strategic priority and the appointment of Sam demonstrates our commitment to achieving this goal.’

Szlezinger, who handles EU and UK competition law matters, currently splits his time between contentious and non-contentious mandates. He has over 20 years’ worth of experience advising on M&A, enforcement investigations and intellectual property matters and recent work includes advising iPhone parts maker Molex on merger clearance to be taken over by Koch Industries for $7.2bn at the end of 2013. Sly added: ‘Sam is a highly rated and experienced competition lawyer who will add strength to our experienced and dynamic team.’

He started his career as a trainee solicitor at Macfarlanes and stayed for seven years, two of which were spent in the firm’s Brussels office.

Meanwhile, DLA Piper lost a partner from its real estate practice as Paul Hastings hired Mark Shepherd in London. Previously at legacy SJ Berwin, Shepherd focuses on large commercial transactions including developments, investments, and joint ventures. He will be re-united with David Ryland who also previously worked at SJ Berwin.

Ryland said: ‘In the last 18 months the number of transactions handled by the Paul Hastings London real estate practice has increased exponentially. We continue to take on new clients, as the team continues to expand.’

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Simon says – DLA Piper gears up for a life after Nigel

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Leadership DLA Piper
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DLA Piper pushed its regional brands to unprecedented heights under a trailblazing leader only to hit the inevitable grind of global integration. Legal Business meets the man charged with finishing what Sir Nigel started.

‘I had to ask Nigel to stop referring to his standing down as the firm’s Sir Alex Ferguson moment,’ laughs Simon Levine, the man tasked with replacing one Sir Nigel Knowles. ‘I didn’t want to go the way of Moysey.’

Legal Business

Life after Sir Nigel – They built it, now what?

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Comment DLA Piper
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DLA Piper’s new head Simon Levine jokes about avoiding becoming the David Moyes to his high-profile predecessor’s Alex Ferguson, but you could make a stronger case that Sir Nigel Knowles’ transformative track record at DLA Piper is closer to making him the firm’s Tony Blair.

Knowles took over an institution amid a period of upheaval and had to fight to establish his authority, which he duly did with a mix of flair, charisma and vision. Because those qualities – not in abundance in the legal profession at executive level during the 1990s – were supported by astute operational point-men like Andrew Darwin, it proved an incredibly potent formula.