DLA Piper

DLA Piper (known until 4 September 2006 as DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary) is the third largest law firm in the world by number of attorneys after Clifford Chance and Baker & McKenzie. (Financial figures for 2005 ranked the firm second to Clifford Chance in worldwide turnover with over $1.5 billion in revenue).

DLA Piper is a legal services organization whose members and affiliates are separate and distinct legal entities. Together, the organization boasts more than 3,200 lawyers in over 24 countries and 63 cities throughout the world.

The firm runs a lobbying arm from London called Global Government Relations.

DLA Piper was formed as a result of the 2005 merger of San Diego-based Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich LLP, London-based DLA LLP (previously Dibb Lupton Alsop), and Piper Rudnick LLP (itself a 1999 merger of Baltimore-based Piper & Marbury and Chicago-based Rudnick & Wolfe).

Complaint against "anti-competitive" register

In June 2008, DLA Piper Global Government Affairs and the Whitehouse Consultancy wrote a letter of complaint to the Public Administration Select Committee, voicing their concerns about organisations refusing to work with agencies not signed up to the Association of Professional Political Consultants (APPC) register. The letter, signed by DLA Piper's director Eben Black, stated:

We understand fully the Met Office's concern to ensure that it only considers tenders from organisations committed to adherence to high ethical standards. But we consider... that such behaviour, as encouraged by the APPC, is anti-competitive. Having taken legal advice we are strongly of the opinion that this contravenes not only government procurement guidelines but also EU directives... and as such is unlawful".

The letter came several weeks after the Met Office put out a tender for a lobbying firm, specifying that it was "essential" for the successful consultancy to be part of the APPC.

Refusal to join Association of Professional Political Consultants

Following a committee inquiry chaired by Labour MP Tony Wright, it emerged in that DLA Piper was one of three agencies refusing to join the APPC. The lobbying arm of the firm, Global Government Relations (GGR). Tim Clement-Jones, Liberal Democrat spokesman on culture and sport in the House of Lords, is founder and chairman; creating, in the eyes of the APPC, a conflict of interests, as members cannot employ sitting peers or MPs. GGR head of media Eben Black, instead of Clement-Jones, was due to appear before the committee.<Staff writers, "Lobbying inquiry zooms in on APPC non-members", PR Week UK, 21.02.08, accessed 10.09.10

Lobbying for Turkey

On 10 October 2007, the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs passed Resolution 106, which accuses the Turkish rulers in 1915 of genocide. There was an intensive on behalf of the Turkish government to sway the committee, described by Ali H. Aslan as follows:

Both the Turkish and the US governments strongly opposed the resolution and were joined by DLA Piper, the Livingstone Group, public relations company Fleishman-Hillard and other companies that officially conducted lobbying activities on behalf of Turkey as well as by big corporations that have sizable commercial deals with Turkey such as Boeing and BP.

People

The firm is managed globally by three joint chief executive officers:

• Nigel Knowles, Frank Burch, and Lee Miller. The three were previously the managing partners of legacy firms (DLA, Piper & Marbury, and Rudnick & Wolfe, respectively).
• The Chairman of the firm's Global Board is former U.S. Democratic Senator George Mitchell, who chaired the peace negotiations which led to the 1998 Belfast Peace Agreement.

In 2007, Jennifer Dunn of DLA Piper is reported to be a member of the Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations (ACTPN)

Affiliations

• Defence Manufacturers Association, member
• Nuclear Industry Association

• DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary

• International Financial Services London - DLA Piper UK LLP is a member
• Atlantic Legal Foundation

• Francis B. Burch, Jr. Co-Chairman, DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US LLP, Baltimore
• Frank H. Menaker Partner DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, Senior VP & General Counsel
• Arthur F. Fergenson Partner, DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US LLP Baltimore, MD

• Heartland Institute - Paul Fisher - Piper, Marbury, Rudnick & Wolfe
• William Cohen The Cohen Group has a strategic alliance with Piper Rudnick
• European Institute (USA) - DLA, Piper Rudnick Gray Cary LLP
• Bioindustry Association, member

See Also

• Global Government Relations
• DLA