Five partners join the office from Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP. They are Stuart M. Brown, Selinda A. Melnik and R. Craig Martin, who will join the Restructuring practice, John L. Reed who joins the Corporate and Litigation practices, and Denise Seastone Kraft, who joins the Litigation and Intellectual Property and Technology practices.
Brown, who will serve as managing partner of DLA Piper’s Wilmington office, is the former head of EAPD’s Wilmington office and former chair of its Restructuring & Insolvency Department.
Reed is listed in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business for his corporate law and litigation practice before the Delaware Court of Chancery and Delaware Supreme Court.
Kraft is the former co-chair of EAPD’s US Commercial Litigation practice group.
Melnik is listed in peer review publications as a leading international insolvency law specialist and is the founder of the International Women’s Insolvency and Restructuring Confederation.
Martin is a Fellow of INSOL International, the International Association of Restructuring, Insolvency & Bankruptcy Professionals.
Francis B. Burch, Jr., Global Chairman of DLA Piper was quoted as saying in the press release at the firm’s website that: “Delaware is home to many of our largest corporate clients and as the legal market in Wilmington has grown, we have had to regularly engage the services of local counsel given the local practice requirements. For this reason, and with the recent expansion of our Restructuring, Corporate and Litigation practices, including the arrivals of Rick Chesley, Jamie Wareham and Laura Flippin, we believe the timing is right for DLA Piper to expand into the Delaware market.”
These partners are joined by former EAPD associates Paul D. Brown, Michelle Marino, Cynthia Moh, K. Tyler O’Connell and Aleine M. Porterfield.
DLA Piper today has 3,500 lawyers in offices throughout Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States. The firm represents more clients in a broader range of geographies and practice disciplines than virtually any other law firm in the world.