DLA Piper has shut down its Canberra office as the global firm continues to shake up its global network by pulling out from less profitable locations.
DLA Piper has confirmed to The Lawyer that it is closing the office in Australia’s capital city after several partners and lawyers walked out to join rival firms in recent months.
In February 2017, DLA Piper’s Canberra office managing partner Anthony Willis joined independent firm Maddocks along with fellow DLA Piper partner Caroline Atkins. The pair focus on government transactions, such as technology procurement, intellectual property and commercial contracting.
The Canberra closure leaves DLA Piper four offices in Australia, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
The firm’s co-managing partners in Australia, Jim Holding and Melinda Upton, said DLA Piper will service government clients from the four offices outside of Canberra.
“We remain absolutely committed to all our government clients and will continue to provide them with the same level of service from our four Australian offices outside Canberra, as well as through the considerable government contracting expertise of our global sector team. We thank our team in Canberra, and wish them all the best,” they said in a statement.
Canberra will be the third office DLA Piper has closed in one month. In March, the firm lost two European offices to rival firms. Its Berlin office was closed following two lawyers exited to launch DWF’s third office in Germany. It pulled out from Georgia in the same week as its 11-lawyer Tblisi team moved to Dentons.
DLA Piper merged with its long-standing Australian strategic ally Phillips Fox in 2011, gaining five financially integrated offices in Australia. However, its Australian practices have been through a turbulent time since then and several leadership changes.
In 2011, just weeks after the merger, its Canberra office saw six of eight partners leave to launch a Canberra office for local firm HWL Ebsworth. DLA Piper’s Canberra office remained a small base since then.
In 2013, DLA Piper’s former Australia chairman and country managing partner Tony Holland is leaving the firm to join Gilbert + Tobin. That year, DLA Piper relocated London-based UK managing partner Andrew Darwin to Sydney to take over the managing partner. The leadership role was then taken up by Minter Ellison’s former chief executive John Weber in March 2015. Weber left the firm last year and was replaced by co-managing partners Holding and Upton.
DLA Piper is not the only global firms that are downsizing in Australia. A number of global palyers flocked into Australia in six or seven years ago via merger have been consolidating in the country, which has been met with slower economic growth and a drop of demand for top-end legal services.
Clifford Chance is another firm that has recently reduced its partnership in Australia. The firm made a U-turn on its decision to close its Perth office and instead opted to cut back local partners’ equity points to improve profitability.
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