DLA Piper’s mega-dreams
DLA Piper handles more corporate deals than any other law firm globally, but they are often the smaller, less glamorous transactions overlooked by Wall Street.
The firm, with its nearly 5,000 lawyers across 40 countries, is making its biggest push to break into the elite of law firms advising on headline megadeals.
It is adding West Coast-based technology dealmaker Michael Dorf to its ranks of partners, who will join from A&O Shearman in the coming days, DD reveals.
This comes on the heels of former Goodwin Procter partner Amanda Gill joining DLA earlier this month.
The roster of corporate dealmakers is being assembled by DLA’s new public company M&A chair Viktor Sapezhnikov, who joined from corporate law powerhouse Wachtell Lipton late last year.
Some $2tn of deals have been recorded globally this year, according to LSEG. It is DLA’s ambition to advise on a larger share of them.
Re-engineering a law firm to compete for advisory roles on large deals has proved a mixed success for DLA’s rivals. A&O has struggled since the merger combining Allen & Overy and Shearman Sterling, while UK law firm Freshfields and capital markets powerhouse Latham & Watkins have soared up the M&A league tables in recent years.
Since arriving at DLA, Sapezhnikov has steered chipmaker Silicon Labs’ $7.5bn sale to Texas Instruments and Trump Media & Technology Group’s $6bn merger with nuclear fusion company TAE Technologies alongside 28-year DLA veteran John Gilluly.