DLA Piper is set to dissolve its Swiss verein structure, after the partners of its US and International LLPs voted “overwhelmingly” in favour of operating under a single leadership team.
The firm said the new structure would increase its capacity to pursue complex work and top-tier talent across its practices and markets, in a statement announcing the move on Friday (24 April).
The new structure will consist of a global LLP that will replace the global Swiss verein and sit above the existing US and International entities, which will continue. It will be headed by Frank Ryan as global chair and co-CEO and Charles Severs as global co-CEO.
“DLA Piper is uniquely positioned to help clients navigate a landscape marked by the increasing complexity of doing business across borders, with less trade and regulatory certainty, and rapid technological disruption,” Ryan said. “This alignment strengthens our ability to invest in the lawyers, teams and technologies that will reshape competition in major legal markets.”
DLA has grown to a 4,800-lawyer firm across 80 global offices since it adopted the Swiss verein structure in 2005. Last year, its revenue topped $4.6bn.
Alongside Ryan and Severs, the firm’s leadership team will include John Gilluly and Loren Brown as vice chairs, Sandra Wallace and Rick Chesley as global co-managing partners, and the firm’s international managing director for clients, Benjamin Parameswaran.
Severs described the move as a “milestone" that “reflects our shared confidence that DLA Piper can take market share when the firm operates with unified global focus and coordination”.
Kirsten Vasquez, vice president at Major Lindsey & Africa, described the vote as one of the most consequential structural shifts by a global law firm in recent years.
“What’s particularly notable is that DLA is not moving to a single profit pool,” Vasquez said. “Instead, it’s attempting the more complex task of aligning incentives while preserving regional economics. That suggests this is less about financial uniformity, and more about improving collaboration, decision-making speed and partner accountability across borders.”
She added that Major Lindsey was seeing a broader market shift away from loose affiliations toward platforms that can act as one firm for global clients.
“In that context, this vote is as much a client trust signal as it is an internal governance decision,” she said.
The changes will take effect on 1 May 2026. DLA Piper said client service would continue without disruption while the new structure was implemented.
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