Los Angeles law firm Liner has been snapped up by DLA Piper. Liner, which was founded in 1996., will bring approximately 60 lawyers to DLA Piper’s Century City and downtown Los Angeles offices with extensive experience in a range of areas, including real estate, entertainment, new media and private equity. On a consolidated basis, the combination will make DLA Piper one of the 15 largest firms in the Los Angeles market. DLA has more than 3,750 lawyers spread across offices in more than 40 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and a turnover of $2.5 billion in revenue last year.
Entrepreneurial
'Liner has developed a strong independent reputation over the past 20 years, representing a range of clients in diverse practices and industry sectors,' said Roger Meltzer, DLA Piper's global co-chairman and co-chairman for the Americas. 'They are fiercely entrepreneurial and committed to providing legal services in innovative and transformative ways, as evidenced by their ability to recruit top-notch talent, including many preeminent practitioners from the Am Law 100. They are a perfect fit with DLA Piper and they will be an important strategic linchpin for us in the region and across our platform as we help them extend their practices nationally and globally.'
African expansion
DLA Piper Africa has been busy expanding its practice of late with recent announcements on its continued expansion across Africa. It has added Tunisian firm, El Ajeri Lawyers, based in Tunis, and Senegalese firm, GENI & KEBE, based in Dakar. These additions provide increased coverage in Francophone Africa, the Maghreb region and sub-Saharan Africa.
Nigerian firm, Olajide Oyewole, based in Lagos, has also recently joined DLA Piper Africa. The joining of these three firms further supports DLA Piper Africa’s efforts to provide its clients with true depth in and coverage of Africa through its leading presence in nineteen African countries.
Full spectrum
Founded in 1912, GENI & KEBE is one of the oldest law firms in sub-Saharan francophone Africa. Led by Mouhamed Kebe, the firm’s 27 practitioners originating from Northern, Western and Central Africa, the United States, Europe and Australia, provide legal services to clients across the full spectrum of commercial law, in both advisory and litigation, as well as arbitration. Working in Senegal, and across sub-Saharan francophone Africa, through GENI & KEBE’s collaboration with affiliated offices, the firm has the ability to serve clients across the OHADA zone.
Eight sectors
El Ajeri Lawyers is a full service business law firm, founded in 2000 by Mohamed Lotfi El Ajeri. The firm has 10 lawyers working across eight sectors, including manufacturing, IT, transport & logistics, energy, media, trade, banking & insurance and government contracts, capable of assisting clients in both advisory services and dispute resolution, most notably arbitration.
Complex legal environment
Michel Frieh, co-Managing Partner of DLA Piper's Paris office, said: 'We are deeply proud to welcome two new firms to DLA Piper Africa, with whom we will be able to continue to provide our clients with the kind of high quality services that they are used to in an increasingly complex legal environment that is constantly shifting. This is an important step for both our Paris and Casablanca offices, which have been at the forefront of establishing these relationships with our peers. With their inclusion, DLA Piper Africa now has a presence across all of the regions on the continent from North to South and East to West, in all working languages.'
Email your news and story ideas to: [email protected]
