A year after its bid to merge with now-defunct Canadian firm Heenan Blaikie fell through, DLA Piper has found a partner up north in Davis, a 260-lawyer midtier firm based in Vancouver. The disappointing Heenan Blaikie experience “clarified our thinking,” says Roger Meltzer, global and Americas co-chairman at DLA Piper. Effective in April, the new merger marks the latest combination of a global verein with a Canadian law firm.
The tie-up, approved by both firms in late February, will bring into the DLA Piper fold seven new offices besides the base in Vancouver: Calgary; Edmonton; Montreal; Toronto; Tokyo; Whitehorse, Yukon and Yellowknife, Northwest Territories—the latter two likely to be the most northerly outposts of any Am Law 100 firm.
