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Summary: Dentons 
is running strong as they easily become the world’s largest law firm with the addition of Chinese Dacheng and two other mergers in the works.
Nearly a year after Dentons and Chinese powerhouse Dacheng announced their merger; it has finally been made official. Dentons now stands at around 6,600 lawyers in 50 countries and 125 offices to easily make them the largest law firm. The second largest firm is now Baker & McKenzie at just over 4,000 lawyers.
This is not the last merger for Dentons. They are already in the process of merging with two other large firms. They are working to add Gadens, a 500-lawyer strong firm in Australia and Rodyk & Davidson, the oldest firm in Singapore with 200 lawyers. With the addition of these two firms, Dentons would then be at 7,200 lawyers and have 80 offices in Asia alone. Dentons global chair, Joseph Andrew says, “There is no limitation to where we might want to go,” referring to the fact that Dentons does not plan on slowing down their growth.
China has been a tough market for other foreign firms. Several U.S. firms that started an office in China are not making any money. Dentons is relying on the fact that Dacheng mostly handles outgoing deals. Other challenges they will face in China are the cultural differences and customs. China’s courts are politically controlled, and some say they are filled with corruption and likely to go against foreign interests.
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Photo: business.financialpost.com
