DLA to continue overseas push as profits climb 6%

LAW firm DLA Piper, which has offices in Birmingham, today said it was set to continue its push overseas as it revealed increased revenues and profits in 2010.

Across the business law firm, profits increased by almost 6% to £503m with revenue up by 1% to £1.27bn.

DLA Piper, one of the world’s largest law firms, said its positive momentum had continued into 2011 with Q1 revenues of £14.2m, 11.5% higher than in the same period last year.

Over the past 18 months, the firm has expanded its geographic spread and has established a presence in Turkey, Brazil, Portugal and Venezuela and it recently completed an integration with DLA Philips Fox in Australia.

The firm, which has 4,200 lawyers in 76 offices worldwide, says it expects revenues to rise by 15.6% in 2011.

Sir Nigel Knowles, joint chief executive of DLA Piper, said: “Against the backdrop of a tough global legal services market, our performance demonstrates the advantages of the firm’s diversity of services and geography.

“Our ambition is to be and remain the leading global business law firm and our absolute focus on our clients and what they need from us now and in the future will enable us to achieve this.

“Everyone in the firm is focused on continuing to deliver capability and value to our clients wherever they choose to do business.”