View an interactive chart of early law firm finance reports.
DLA Piper registered solid growth in both gross revenue and profits in 2012. Gross revenue at the 4,000-attorney firm increased 8.6 percent to $2.44 billion, while profits per partner increased 6.9 percent to $1.310 million, according to reporting by The American Lawyer.
The firm’s revenue per lawyer was essentially flat in 2012, however, rising 0.8 percent to $605,000.
The increase in profits and steady RPL results came as attorney head count grew solidly at the firm, which operates under the Swiss verein structure, while the size of the equity partnership was flat. DLA Piper’s total lawyer head count increased by 291, up 7.8 percent, but the size of the equity partnership ranks increased by just three to 462.
The firm’s matters in 2012 included representing JDA Software Group Inc. in a $1.9 billion merger with affiliates of RedPrairie Corp., the real estate investment trust Fibra UNO in a $850 million private placement, and BP in a $2.5 billion agreement to sell its southern California refining and marketing business.
DLA Piper also represented the Super Bowl–bound San Francisco 49ers on an $850 million loan to finance the construction of a new stadium.
In September the firm also announced the appointment of two new co–managing partners for the United States: Washington, D.C.–based corporate partner Anastasia Kelly and Chicago-based litigation partner Michael Poulos. The co–managing partners round out a U.S. leadership team that includes cochairmen Cameron Rains and Roger Meltzer, who were elected to their positions earlier in the year. (Meltzer is a member of the board of directors for ALM Media Holdings Inc., parent company of The Am Law Daily.)
DLA Piper's recent lateral additions have included 15 partners from the now-defunct Dewey & LeBoeuf, as well as former Blank Rome managing partners and CEO Carl Buchholz and former White & Case global securitization cohead Richard Reilly.
This report is part of The Am Law Daily's early coverage of 2012 financial results of The Am Law 100/200. Final rankings and full results for The Am Law 100 will be published in The American Lawyer's May 2013 issue and on AmericanLawyer.com. The Am Law Second Hundred will be published in the June issue.
