D&P retreat to plan

Scandinavian firm Lindh Stabell Horten (LSH) which last week became the ninth member of City practice DLAs European network D&P will join other D&P members for a retreat in a secluded UK country hotel this week to discuss the groups future.Commercial and shipping firm LSH has offices in Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm; its 185 lawyers bring D&Ps total strength to 1,600 lawyers based in Holland, Sweden, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Russia, Norway, the UK and Singapore, making it the fourth largest global alliance.Nigel Knowles, managing partner of DLA and chief executive officer of D&P, said the retreat which will be attended by all the member firms managing partners would be conducive to pure thought about future strategy.He said that, having achieved critical mass, D&P would now focus on building brand awareness, as well as integrating the member firms and converging their systems.D&P will no longer actively search for new members, but Mr Knowles said it no longer needed to anyway: Now that D&P has established a certain credibility, firms are finding their way to us.He said the group has learned from the mistakes of many Anglo firms which take over foreign firms without working with them.In response to criticism that the alliance is likely to be costly without yielding immediate profit, he said: You can argue its expensive, but in the short term we have made a return from clients, and become an established EU firm.Jeremy Fleming