Warsaw, Poland. Photo: iStock
K&L Gates is pulling out of Warsaw after nine years in Poland, selling its office there to U.K.-based international firm DWF.
DWF has agreed to pay £3 million ($3.9 million) to acquire the office, including 11 partners, 45 lawyers and 31 support staff. The firm said it expects its new Warsaw group, formerly known as K&L Gates Jamka, to generate about £7 million ($9 million) in revenue in the financial year ending April 30, 2020.
A spokesperson for K&L Gates said in a statement: “After a careful and thorough assessment of our clients' needs against the backdrop of economic and related trends, current and future opportunities and factors in the market, and the great strength of the firm's other offerings in Europe in particular and elsewhere, K&L Gates previously determined that it was in the best interest of the firm to separate from the practice based in Warsaw.”
“The Warsaw-based lawyers are now in the process of joining with another firm and we are working with them on an amicable termination of our remaining relationship. We wish them the best in their new affiliation,” the statement said.
Pittsburgh-based K&L Gates entered Warsaw in 2010, when it took a group of about 30 lawyers from Hogan & Hartson, as the latter firm prepared for its merger with Lovells. (The combined firm is now Hogan Lovells.)
Maciej Jamka became the administrative partner of K&L Gates' Warsaw location, which was known locally as K&L Gates Jamka. It grew to nearly 60 lawyers before the group's move to DWF.
According to data collected by ALM Intelligence, in the two months leading up to the office closure, K&L Gates saw five lawyers leave the Warsaw office, including one partner, Andrzej Mikosz, who went to Taylor Wessing along with an associate. But the firm also hired three associates in Warsaw during that time span.
K&L Gates had gross revenue of $1.01 billion in 2018, according to recently released data from Legal affiliate The American Lawyer's Am Law 100. While that represented revenue growth of 1.8%, the firm actually dropped five spots in the Am Law 100 rankings to 37, as other top-50 firms posted big gains during a year of industrywide demand growth.
Elsewhere in Europe, K&L Gates has offices in Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich in Germany, as well as Brussels, London, Milan and Paris.
DWF is a publicly traded law firm, since it listed on the stock market earlier this year. The Warsaw acquisition is its first since the March IPO.
DWF managing partner and CEO Andrew Leaitherland said in a statement: “This move will strengthen DWF's capabilities in our global sectors of financial services and real estate, among others, and provides further opportunities in technology and energy where our businesses have strong alignment.
He added: “Poland has a strong and dynamic economy and is an important gateway to central, eastern and southeastern Europe as a whole. Having a presence there delivers on our international strategy to be where our clients need us to be.”
The Warsaw office will be DWF's seventh continental European office, alongside Brussels, Paris, Milan and three in Germany.
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