DLA Piper
No of UK Partners: 345
No of UK Assistant Solicitors: 771
Other UK Fee Earners: 311
www.dlapiper.com
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After years of speculation that the English national firms would swamp the Scottish market, DLA Piper finally followed Masons into the Scottish market in 2000. Given DLA Piper’s strategy of being in the top five in each of its markets, its arrival in Scotland was relatively low key, via a merger with mid-tier Glaswegians Bird Semple.
For a couple of years, expansion was modest. While DLA Piper is often portrayed as a firm in a hurry, it is also capable of showing remarkable patience when it enters a new market. This was well demonstrated by its slow, but determined, rise to the top tier in Birmingham, another market where it gained a foothold through a mid-tier merger.
Since a change of management in 2000, DLA Piper in Scotland has been growing much more aggressively. Between 2002 and 2004, the number of fee-earners increased from 47 to 90, and its fee income to £11m. The target headcount by for 2005 is 105 and turnover is projected at £15m – almost double the figure for 2003.
Currently, commercial property accounts for almost half of the firm’s income in Scotland, although its IT practice is increasingly making a name for itself. DLA Piper is in the process of building critical mass in its banking, corporate, construction, human resources, insurance and technology, media and telecoms practices. Its public affairs arm, DLA Upstream, has also been active in Scotland since 2001, focusing on the Scottish Parliament. Clients include HBOS and the Royal Bank of Scotland, although the biggest single client of DLA Piper in Scotland so far has been DLA Piper in England.
Unsurprisingly, then, DLA Piper is still looking for high calibre lawyers (most often from the Big Four). According to local recruiters, it is fairly unusual in Scotland for hiring more senior associates as it seeks to bulk up north of the border. It is able to offer the opportunity not only to develop in Scotland, but also, almost uniquely for a Scottish firm, spend time elsewhere in the world.
Of all the firms which started life in the English regions, DLA Piper has arguably had the most success in transcending its roots. The firm has developed a London office the envy of its national rivals, an international network which spans 29 offices in 21 jurisdictions and in 2004 became the first national firm to pull off a transatlantic merger.
DLA Piper’s ultimate ambition is to be a top 5 global law firm, but in Scotland, by its own admission, DLA Piper does not yet compete head-on with the “Big Four”. If the Scottish operation is to keep its end up, it will need to continue to invest and grow. The firm has already been in lots of well-publicised, if mostly preliminary, merger talks (most notably with Burness) in Scotland. It says it is happy to grow organically and through lateral hires for now, but it would surprise no-one if DLA Piper did secure a major merger eventually, even with one of the “Big Four”.
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