DLA and Piper Rudnick have pledged their merger bid is still on track despite this week’s revelation that the US firm is also in merger talks with California’s Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich.

Senior sources within Piper have stressed the Gray Cary talks will not affect the DLA merger bid and that the UK firm’s chief, Nigel Knowles, has been made aware of all Piper’s ambitions for some time.