Ride the Lightning

Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

How Did DLA Piper Get to the Top of the AmLaw 100?

September 10, 2013

While I have taken DLA Piper to the literary woodshed several times this year for what I perceive as ethical missteps, no one can fail to be amazed that a firm which didn't exist nine years ago has gotten to the top of the Am Law 100, toppling Baker & McKenzie.

How did the fledgling firm rise so fast?

There's an illuminating video from Bloomberg and the ABA that offers some answers. Kent Zimmermann, consultant to law firms for the ZeughauserGroup, talks with Bloomberg Law's Lee Pacchia about how DLA Piper—a firmcreated by a 2005 merger between San Diego-based Gray Cary Ware &Freidenrich, Chicago-based Piper Rudnick and London-based DLA—became thenation's highest-grossing law firm.

Zimmerman says the firm used money wisely, bringing in top talent with large books of business and global experience. It differentiated its brand. More than anything else, he says the firm truly understood globalization and leveraged its understanding to vault ahead of other firms.

In an attempt to copycat that success, we are seeing more mergers than ever before, especially with foreign firms, which now really "get" the fact that 75% of legal services monies are spent in the U.S., mostly on litigation. Zimmerman attributes this to the strength of the plaintiff's bar.

Additionally, the U.S. in general, and states like Texas in particular, are known as hellhole litigation jurisdictions. An interesting term.

The video makes thought-provoking viewing for anyone who lectures, as I do, on the future of the legal profession. As they say in the movies, "It's complicated."