It was with some surprise that the legal market received the news that the latest US firm to attempt a move into the UK by way of a top tier merger was neither a New York firm in the Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson mould nor a national US powerhouse like Latham & Watkins. Piper Rudnick is an ambitious, full-service firm that grew out of an unfashionable town to stake a claim on the national stage and is now itching to grow further – rather, in fact, like its prospective merger partner, DLA.
Talks between the two firms have been in full swing for nearly a year, and a partnership vote is scheduled for November. All being well, the merger, which would create a firm of 823 partners worldwide, will take place in the New Year.
