DLA and Piper Rudnick merge operations

04 January 2005

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DLA and US-based Piper Rudnick LLP have announced that they will merge. When combined, DLA, which has extensive coverage across Europe and Asia, and Piper Rudnick, a national law firm in the US, will have wide global reach across a broad range of practice areas. This international merger of equals is evenly balanced on both sides with around 1,350 lawyers in the US and approximately 1,350 lawyers in Europe and Asia. The announcement comes just two months after Piper Rudnick stated that it would merge with Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich LLP. With the latest merger, the combined organisation will be known as DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary and will be the only legal provider in the world with more than 1,000 lawyers on both sides of the Atlantic. Both mergers become effective on 1 January 2005. Piper Rudnick's co-chairs, Francis Burch and Lee Miller, and DLA's managing partner, Nigel Knowles, jointly announced the merger following a simultaneous partner vote by both sides on 4 December. Burch, Miller and Knowles, who will serve as joint CEOs, will lead the combined firm. With more than 2,700 lawyers located in 18 countries and projected 2005 revenues of $1.5bn, DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary will become the third largest legal services provider in the world, based on the number of lawyers, and the second largest based on revenue, according to the latest AmLaw Global 100 rankings.