DLA Piper scoop lands 45 strong rival Denton Wilde Sapte team

DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary (DLA Piper) is today acquiring 11 partners, 18 lawyers, four trainees and 12 support staff from the media and IP team at Denton Wilde Sapte (DWS).
This is the largest acquisition in the history of the UK legal sector.
The team will join DLA Piper's thriving Technology, Media & Communications (TMC) group, which was named IP/IT Team of the Year by Legal Business Magazine in 2003 and Media/IP & IT Team of the Year by The Lawyer in 2004.
DLA Piper's existing TMC division includes a powerhouse IT and telecommunications practice, regarded as the leading team in the UK. It also has a highly regarded IP practice.
The DWS team, regarded as one of the leading IP and media teams in the UK, contains market-leading practitioners in the areas of television and broadcasting, sport, film production and finance, IP, pharmaceuticals & biosciences, publishing and interactive gaming.
As part of the acquisition, the vast majority of DWS's clients in these areas will be transferring to DLA Piper, including: NBC Universal, Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), Teva Pharmaceuticals, The Football Association, the FA Premier League, Honda, Sony Pictures and Warner Brothers.
Following the merger of DLA and Piper Rudnick on January 1 2005, the acquisition of the media and IP team from DWS further strengthens the services provided by the organisation, now ranked as third largest legal services provider in the world, with more than 2,800 lawyers located in 18 countries.
The global TMC team at DLA Piper now comprises over 400 specialist lawyers in the areas of IT, IP, media, telecommunications, e-business, data protection and privacy, located in 49 offices and 18 countries across Europe, Asia and the US.
Commenting on the acquisition, Simon Levine, the former head of TMT at DWS, who will become the joint Global Leader of the TMC group at DLA Piper, said: "We had strong ambitions to grow and develop our TMC practice and were keen to join a like thinking firm. DLA Piper with its global focus and commitment to the whole TMC sector proved to be the obvious choice."
Julian Stait, the joint Global Leader of the Litigation group at DLA Piper, who was responsible for hiring the DWS team, added: "The fit between the teams could not be better. This move will cement our position as the leading global TMC practice."
(GB/SP)