DLA Piper Surpasses Baker & McKenzie As World's Largest Law Firm

It's official. DLA Piper has overtaken Baker & McKenzie as the biggest dog on the block. The whole block.

We know how much BigLaw loves to rank itself. And after adding DLA Phillps Fox' Australian attorneys, DLA Piper now employs 700 lawyers in the Asia-Pacific region. That's a total of 4,200 lawyers in 76 offices in 30 countries.

Take that Baker.

For those associates convinced that size does in fact matter, DLA Piper's force of 4,200 legal paladins officially outnumbers Baker & McKenzie's 3,750 locally admitted lawyers in 68 offices worldwide.

The merger depended on a favorable vote of the partners of both firms. DLA Piper's Australia office managing partner, Tony Holland, predictably said clients will be "at the center of everything we do." And all those clients will surely help out with collecting all that cash.

Will these have any bearing on most BigLaw associates? Outside of knowing which firm has the most attorneys -- probably not.

Now that DLA has the most attorneys in the world, they will surely make a play for the most billable hours, too.

Related Resources:

• DLA Piper Forms World's Largest Law Firm With Australian Merger (Bloomberg News)
• Silicon Valley Law Firms Hire More Associates and Hike Their Salaries (ABA Journal)
• Survey: Associate Job Satisfaction at 6 Year Low (FindLaw's Greedy Associates)
• DLA Piper to Become World's Largest Law Firm with Australian Merger (ABA Journal)