City law firm DLA sealed the first large-scale transatlantic merger of equals this week after partners voted in favour of a deal with US firm Piper Rudnick – a move that could spark a flurry of US/UK tie-ups.

The new firm will be known as DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary following Piper Rudnick’s announcement two months ago that it would merge with California-based firm Gray Care Ware & Freidenrich.


Knowles: firms share vision

The combined firm will become the third largest legal services provider in the world, based on the number of lawyers, with more than 1,350 in Europe and Asia and the same number again in the US. It will also have a projected revenue of $1.5 billion (£773 million).

Tony Williams, management consultant at Jomati and former managing partner of Clifford Chance and Andersen Legal, said: ‘This is the nearest thing that we have seen to a transatlantic merger of equals. Firms on both sides of the Atlantic will be very interested and watching this closely. There is more interest now in transatlantic mergers than there has been for the past few years, and we could well see this trend continuing. The US market has seen more consolidation, and firms have realised that to have a strong international capability, there is a demand for critical mass.’


DLA and Piper Rudnick are roughly equal in terms of size and revenue, and both focus on middle and upper-middle market clients. The merged firm will be run by three chief executive officers: Nigel Knowles, managing partner of DLA, and Francis Burch Jr and Lee Miller, current joint chairmen of Piper Rudnick. It will be chaired by Senator George Mitchell, who led the Northern Ireland peace negotiations and is a Piper Rudnick partner.


Mr Knowles said: ‘Piper Rudnick has the same vision that DLA has of becoming a top-five global full-service law firm. We have agreed that both firms should respect their own culture – to try to create one transatlantic culture would be a disaster.’


He added that although the new firm would have three CEOs, there would be no duplication of work, and any disagreements would just have to be talked through.


He said: ‘DLA’s current vision has focused on building a full-service presence across Europe and Asia. Europe and Asia are still key to the long-term plans of the business but the time is now right for us to take this opportunity to develop our global reach.


‘We will be able to differentiate ourselves by being one of the few firms that is not predominantly capital markets driven. Rather, our goal is to build long-term relationships with clients seeking a broad range of services locally, nationally or internationally.’


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