In early November, riding high on two new deals with firms in Australia and Singapore, Dentons global chair Joe Andrew was asked where the firm might plant its flag next. Antarctica? North Korea?
The question was only half in jest. The firm’s latest three-way plan, to staple on 500-lawyer Gadens, Australia’s seventh-largest firm, and 200-lawyer Rodyk & Davidson, Singapore’s oldest, would give Dentons six new offices—including an outpost in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, the carjacking and armed robbery capital of the world and 138th out of 140 cities in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s “liveability” rankings. The new deals—which were approved by partner votes Nov. 17—are presumably the last in a year of rapid-fire tie-ups or lateral acquisitions, beginning with the announcement in January of a combination with 3,600-lawyer Dacheng, finalized Nov. 10; the addition of a 50-lawyer group in Budapest in April; a combination with McKenna Long & Aldridge, which closed in July; and the addition of a Milan team in October. Dentons is now poised to become a 7,300-lawyer firm, the world’s largest.
