DLA Piper has announced that John Shi and Nicolas Groffman have both joined DLA Piper as partners in Beijing.
The pair of attorneys will also work closely with the firm’s Shanghai, Hong Kong and other Asia Pacific offices.
The news dovetails with Mallesons preparation to seal a merger with Chinese firm King & Wood. The Australian firm’s partners voted in favor of the tie-up last week, with King & Wood’s partners understood to have given their backing to the deal this week, according to the November 1st law.com article, “DLA Piper bolsters China practice with double hire from Mallesons”.
Mallesons’ Beijing chief representative since 2004, Shi is a corporate lawyer with significant expertise in M&A, foreign direct investment and all types of corporate structures and operational issues in China.
Groffman is a partner in Mallesons’ Beijing office. He specializes in technology, media and telecommunications. In addition, he has a broad M&A practice.
In a statement, DLA Piper’s joint CEO Nigel Knowles was quoted as having said, per the law.com article: “As the Chinese government continues to encourage Chinese entities to invest overseas we anticipate a growing emphasis on outbound work. As a global law firm with strong US and EMEA offerings, DLA Piper is well placed to support this trend and the appointment of John and Nic will ensure we have a market leading international legal practice in China.”
DLA Asia-Pacific managing director Alistair Da Costa was quoted as having said in the November 29th law.com article: “One of the strategic priorities for the firm, and for Asia Pacific in particular, is the continual development and growth of our Greater China offering, especially our corporate practice.”
Per the article, it’s anticipated that additional lawyers from Mallesons’ Beijing office will follow Shi and Groffman to DLA Piper, which is also expected to make additions to its Shanghai team.
Currently, DLA Piper has nine partners and 62 other fee-earners working across Beijing and Shanghai, while Mallesons has five partners and 22 other fee-earners in these two cities.
Global law firm DLA Piper has 76 offices across 30 countries and more than 4,200 lawyers. As of May 2011, it was the largest law firm in the world by number of attorneys. The firm is composed of two partnerships, DLA Piper International, and DLA Piper U.S. The two partnerships share a single management board but are not financially integrated.
DLA Piper’s clients range from multinational, Global 1,000 and Fortune 500 enterprises to emerging high-tech companies and start-ups, for which it operates a dedicated division for venture-capital placements. The firm represents over 140 of the top 250 Fortune 500 clients and nearly half of the FTSE 350 or their subsidiaries.
Frank Burch and Tony Angel serve as Co-Chairs of the firm’s Global Board, and Senator George Mitchell as Chairman Emeritus.