DLA Piper named Law.com International’s Law Firm of the Year

DLA Piper has been named Law Firm of The Year by Law.com International at a ceremony on 19 November in London. Hosted by Legal Week in association with the City of London Law Society, these awards celebrate outstanding performances by law firms, legal teams and individuals.

The judges considered a wide range of factors including financial performance, growth, mandates, innovation and progress in diversity, transparency and pro bono. Law.com International highlighted that DLA Piper outperformed most other large firms, with a particular highlight on innovative moves, pro bono, diversity and inclusion and top level partner hires.

DLA Piper’s Global Co-CEO, Simon Levine, commented: “This is wonderful recognition of the achievements of our people who have been truly exceptional throughout an undoubtedly challenging year. We have been focusing on evolving into something new over the last two years, driving a fundamental shift in mindset across the firm. We’re embracing the challenge of becoming a more diverse and sustainable business and while keeping law at the heart of everything we do, expanding beyond traditional legal services through our Law& brand. Our clients face both challenges and opportunities over the coming months and years, and being a trusted business adviser is core to our commitment with them that, together, we can help make business better.”

DLA Piper was also highly commended in the Crisis Management category for its work for global infrastructure funds and the development of the DLA Piper Project Simulator software, an interactive training tool which replicates real incidences of risk and project distress using a sophisticated algorithm derived from gaming technology.

In addition to the accolade, the firm was shortlisted in the following categories:

• Competition/Regulatory Team of the Year, for its work advising Thomas Kalaris in the fraud trial concerning Barclays’ capital raising and related payments to Qatar in 2008, resulting in acquittal on all charges in March 2020.
• Energy and Infrastructure Team of the Year, for its work advising Credit Suisse Energy Infrastructure Partnerson the acquisition of a majority stake in a 500MW Nordic wind portfolio.
• Life Sciences Team of the Year, for its work advising Unilever on life science-related aspects of its response to the COVID-19 crisis.
• Litigation and Dispute Resolution Team of the Year – UK, for its work, alongside Addleshaw Goddard and Eversheds Sutherland International, advising on the 2019 rail franchising litigation, one of the largest and most complex procurement and commercial judicial review claims litigated to date in the UK.
• Property Team of the Year, for its work advising AXA IM-Real Assets on its agreement to take private a US REIT, NYSE listed Northstar Realty Europe.