2022 DIVERSITY DATABASE UNDERWRITER DLA Piper

With approximately 4,300 lawyers in 90-plus offices around the globe, DLA Piper is one of the largest law firms—both by headcount and by revenue—in the world. 

From Big to Ginormous

DLA Piper is a law firm empire. Its massive growth is the result of 2005’s tripartite merger between U.K. firm DLA, Chicago/Baltimore-based Piper Rudnick, and California’s Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich—and the whirlwind of acquisitions that followed. Spurring the growth were healthy real estate, litigation, corporate, and private equity practices and the absorption of entire departments from rival firms. In September 2006, the firm cut its name from DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary to the concise DLA Piper, a change reflecting its new emphasis on global brand building. The firm’s 2011 merger with DLA Phillips Fox in Australia pushed the firm over the 4,000-attorney mark, bringing the already super-sized firm from huge to gigantic. Since then, in the Americas, the firm has combined with Davis LLP to bring its platform into Canada; expanded into Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Puerto Rico; and grown its entertainment, real estate, and other regional sector and practice capabilities through a merger with Liner LLP in Los Angeles.

Give Them Privacy

DLA Piper advises clients across more than a dozen industries and eight major practice areas (with a host of sub-practices). With newly introduced artificial intelligence, proptech, fintech, and blockchain and digital assets practices and a top-notch practice in data protection, privacy, and security, DLA Piper has its finger on the pulse of the modern business world. The firm ranks among the top 5 firms in Vault’s Privacy & Data Security ranking—and for good reason. Its lawyers handle everything from compliance and data mapping to data security and consumer protection regulation to global data transfer management and lobbying—and everything in between. 

With 500 lawyers strong, DLA Piper’s Real Estate department is another major focus for the firm. The firm is available to help clients with real estate litigation and also a host of other areas, including financing, development, asset management, REITs, and construction issues. DLA Piper also produces a publication called the Real Estate Gazette, which compiles articles on legislation and case law affecting the real estate world. 

The firm’s Employment practice is also highly regarded. The practice reaches across the globe and includes both local and cross-border work. Among the areas the firm counsels on are discrimination, employee benefits, global employment law compliance, global governance and compliance, labor relations, litigation, and workforce restructuring, to name some.

Add a Stamp

Some firms offer their attorneys secondment opportunities, but not every firm has a Global Mobility team like DLA Piper. This team provides support to lawyers who embark on secondments—many of which are international. Through the firm’s Global Mobility program, lawyers can work in another location for six months—something the firm thinks enhances its lawyers’ global mindset.

• DLA Piper advised T-Mobile US, Inc. and Deutsche Telekom AG on regulatory and litigation matters in the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint.
• DLA Piper represented Concord in a US$600 million term loan B debt offering and US$450 million revolving credit facility in one of the largest recent music industry financings.
• DLA Piper served as privacy diligence counsel for Visa in its US$5.3 billion acquisition of fintech company Plaid.
• DLA Piper represented AS Roma SPV in the €591 million sale of its controlling interest in Italian soccer club AS Roma, and related assets, to The Friedkin Group.

• #2 Most Powerful Law Firm Brand in the World, 2021—Acritas
• #5 Most Powerful Law Firm Brand in the United States, 2021—Acritas
• #2 Law Firm for Client Service, 2020—BTI Client Service A-Team
• #1 Global M&A Deal Volume, 2020—Mergermarket
• One of the Best Law Firms for Women, 2021—Working Mother