The Brief:
DLA Piper votes to dissolve its Swiss verein, replacing it with a new global LLP under unified leadership.
Separate profit pools remain for now, with a partner pay consultation to follow later this year.
DLA Piper partners have voted to tear down the firm’s Swiss verein, backing a move to a new global LLP under a single leadership team. Changes take effect 1 May.
The 4,800-lawyer firm, which pulled in US$4.6bn (A$6.4bn) revenue in 2025, adopted the verein in 2008 to fuel its international push. It’s now betting the structure is holding it back.
And it’s not alone. Baker McKenzie scrapped local profit pools across Asia and EMEA in early 2025. King & Wood Mallesons formally split into King & Wood and Mallesons. Norton Rose Fulbright merged its EMEA and Australian profit pools last year. The verein's shine has worn off.
A new global holding company will sit above two continuing entities, DLA Piper US and DLA Piper International.
The firm is not moving to a single profit pool. A pay consultation for EMEA and APAC partners is planned for later this year, aimed at pulling remuneration closer to the US model.
Global Co-CEO Charles Severs was blunt on the result: “This vote was more overwhelming than I could ever hope for”. The vote is “a massive catalyst” that will allow the firm to win clients, be more ambitious, and attract and retain talent, he said.
Frank Ryan stays on as co-CEO and takes on the additional role of global chair. John Gilluly and Loren Brown join as vice chairs, Sandra Wallace and Rick Chesley as global co-managing partners, and Benjamin Parameswaran as international managing director for clients.
Ryan said collapsing the structure changes how fast the firm can move.
When you have one leadership team, and we get together in a room, and we have leaders strategising about the firm’s overall competitive position, without being based through one particular lens but looking at it in a unified combined way.
Recent hires signal the ambition is already live. DLA has poached top lawyers like Wachtell Lipton M&A partner Viktor Sapezhnikov and Akin Gump’s private capital team, led by Ranesh Ramanathan.
Source: Bloomberg Law, Law.com