DLA Piper enters Canada with Davis merger
Vancouver-based Davis to be known as DLA Piper Canada following the completion of the merger later this year.
March 02, 2015 at 05:26 AM
2 minute read
DLA Piper has made its first foray into Canada through a merger with Vancouver firm Davis, a year after talks with now defunct Heenan Blaikie fell through.
The tie-up, which was approved by the Canadian firm last week, boosts DLA's global headcount to around 4,460 lawyers. The merger is set to go live in April.
Davis, which has a total of 260 lawyers, is set to join DLA's US profit centre, and will be known as DLA Piper Canada.
The firm currently has seven offices in Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Vancouver, Calgary, Whitehorse, Yellowknife and Tokyo, where the firm is known as Davis & Takahashi.
"This is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to join a leading-edge global firm with high-profile legal professionals committed to helping clients succeed through practical and innovative legal solutions," said managing partner of Davis, Robert Seidel in a statement.
It is understood that the firms have had an exclusive cross-border referral relationship for the last few months.
Last February DLA Piper entered talks to take on a group of lawyers from Heenan Blaikie after the Canadian firm announced that it was going to collapse. DLA said at the time that the talks had failed to go through as the parties were "unable to agree to economic terms and accommodate the needs of the lawyers at Heenan Blaikie."
The firm has been interested in entering Canada for a number of years and held talks with Canadian heavyweight Fasken Martineau in 2008.
"We decided we've got to be more disruptive, more aggressive about it, we've got to do something more surprising," DLA Piper's global co-chairman Roger Meltzer told the American Lawyer. "Let's see if there's a firm out there that fits our size and scope without overbuying in what is already a crowded Canadian legal market."
The American Lawyer has reported that DLA Piper will share some of the costs and support efforts to build up Davis' office in Toronto via lateral hires.
Dentons entered the Canadian market in 2013 via a combination with Fraser Milner Casgrain. Last year the firm hired 46 lawyers in the fall-out from Heenan Blaikie's collapse.
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