If, as looks highly likely, DLA Piper chief executive Nigel Knowles is to take another four-year term at the head of the transatlantic giant that he helped to forge, it will crown a remarkable career as a law firm leader.
Such a move would mean that Knowles will have led a major law firm for over 15 years by the end of his term, starting back with his first role as managing partner of Dibb Lupton Broomhead in 1996. That is the kind of tenure that you see on occasion in the US or continental Europe, but it’s virtually unheard of in the cut-throat world of UK law.
