Giant law firm DLA Piper growing globally, locally - Philadelphia Business Journal:

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The firm's Philadelphia office has doubled in size over the past five year to 60 lawyers and local partners say they have embracefthe firm's newfound global reach and not become lost in the It's touting that global scale as the officer hits its 15-year anniversary. The firm made a significanrt commitment to Philadelphia in 2005 by moving from Two Logan Squar to OneLiberty Place, where it signedf a 15-year lease and can accommodatre 78 lawyers. But recent growthg has largely been organic in nature and on the associate level as the Philadelphia officr only has16 partners.
Products liability litigator Ray Williamz from Reed Smith and antitrusg litigator Carl Hittinger from Stevens Lee are the two most recent lateral but the firm lost corporatde lawyerPeter Tucci, the office's only transactional partner, earliet this fall to Fox Rothschild only five years after he joinee from Reed Smith. James Brogan, DLA'sd Philadelphia office managing partner, admits the firm isn't for every lawyer because of its high billing rate structurew andinternational platform. Brogan said the officew generates only 25 percent of its revenue from local clientsw and save fora four-partner intellectual propertuy practice, consists largely of litigators.
Brogan said the goal is to attrac lawyers that fit within thefirm structure, thougj he said it would certainlyu like to add a transactional element to the mix. "We don't have any specific goal for growth," Brogaj said. "We want practices that fit the firm'sw strengths -- real estate, real estate finance, corporate, labor and employmenty and antitrust litigation. So if we have 85 that's fine. But if we stay at 60, that'w fine too because it's about the qualityg of the lawyers." Legal recruiter Michael Coleman of said recruitinfg lawyers for DLA is no differen t from recruiting forthe city's two most profitabls firms, and .
Coleman said the pool of suitabl e applicants is thinned by the high standards andbillingb rates. "Ideally, I'd be looking at a Wall Streetf lawyer who lives in Bucks County but is tirintg of the commute and might realize he can get the same supporrt services and global reach as he could get in New Coleman said. "Historically, there has been little movementg of name players in thecorporate ... So far, the results haven't been there but soone r or later they will because DLA has a great stortto tell.
" Brogan said the amount of interesrt in DLA from potential lateral hires and law studentse has gone up exponentially in the past year and a Applications from law students have quadrupled applications. Some of the office' s biggest business producers are used to travelinv because of their work for largecorporate Brogan, a commercial litigator, represents tire manufacturer insurance coverage litigator Ron Schiller represent and Motorola; commercial litigator John McKeever represents UPS; and products liabilityt litigator William Kiniry represents Porsche and Harley-Davidson.
McKeever and intellectual-propertyy practice head Dan Christenbury have traveled to Europe and the Far East in the past year to meet with theier new colleagues to forge relationshipzs andcultivate cross-selling Christenbury said he already had overseasw clients but that the DLA merger has giveh him and his local IP partnerx more credibility with potential foreign Patent prosecution work does not alwaysd fit with large, international firms like DLA. But Christenburuy and colleague Paul Taufer said the IP group is careful to handle less rate sensitivre matters such as patent litigation and duediligence work.
"Ther e are some clients that are lookin g for a firm that will do the best work regardlesasof rates," Taufer said. "And we now have a betted chance to getthose clients."