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 organisation 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).

Refusal to join the Association of Professional Political Consultants

Following a committee inquiry chaired by Labour MP Tony Wright, it emerged that DLA Piper was one of three agencies refusing to join the APPC. Tim Clement-Jones, Liberal Democrat spokesman on culture and sport in the House of Lords, is founder and chairman of the lobbying arm of the firm, Global Government Relations (GGR). This creates - 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.

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)

• Miriam Gonzalez Durantez is a partner. She is married to the UK Coalition's Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

Affiliations

• Defence Manufacturers Association, member
• Nuclear Industry Association -has been a member since at least 2005 when it was DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary
• International Nuclear Services (INS)

• 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
• National Business Coalition on E-Commerce and Privacy - DLA Piper represents this business group that includes companies like Experian, Fidelity Investments, the Investment Company Institute, Charles Schwab & Co., Deere & Co, JPMorgan Chase, General Motors, Vanguard Group, Fiserv, Bank of America and Visa.

See Also

• Global Government Relations
• DLA