It’s not every day you see a deal that brings arguably the two most celebrated law firm leaders of the 2000s under one roof. But that is just what the never-dull DLA Piper has done by drafting in Linklaters’ former managing partner Tony Angel to join the firm as global co-chairman and senior partner of its business outside the US, to work alongside the equally high-profile Nigel Knowles.
From very different platforms, and with very different styles, Angel and Knowles probably did more than any other figure to sell the concept of law firm leader as a good thing, rather than a bore or necessary evil. It wasn’t that long ago that the (mostly) men running law firms would boast about how it wasn’t a full-time job and that they still did plenty of client work. You very rarely hear that refrain any more, even from US law firms.
