In late August 2009, the AFR broke the story that DLA Phillips Fox was seeking a formal merger with its international affiliate DLA Piper. Since that story, we published an exclusive report (later picked up by our friends at ALB) on how the Adelaide office of DLA Phillips Fox had become financially independent of the firm.
We then published another exclusive story on rumours that incoming DLA Phillips Fox Chief Executive Partner Tony Holland was essentially intending to slim the firm down to encourage the international integration with DLA Piper. In that post, the following was written:
Tony Holland wants to get rid of a heap of partners who are not in corporate or finance – ie turn Phillips Fox into another MSJ. Then, and only then, will Sir Nigel at DLA [Piper] give the nod to the full merger.
Last week, ALB speculated (in a great scoop) that DLA Phillips Fox might be preparing to sever ties with its New Zealand office, but not merely in the “financial independence” sense that it has with its Adelaide office.
Perhaps now, then, amidst this merger hype, we should pause for a moment to have a quick look at what has recently been reported about the Fox in ALB and Lawyers Weekly:
- Last week, DLA Phillips Fox appointed Greg Clifton as special counsel in its corporate team and Michelle Gaze as a senior associate in its project finance team;
- In March, the entire “media and entertainment” team defected from DLA Phillips Fox for Tresscox;
- In February, DLA Phillips Fox construction partner Alex Harmann left the firm to join Baker & McKenzie;
- In November last year John Hutchison and Tony Macafee joined DLA Phillips Fox as corporate partners
- In October last year, environment and planning senior associate Kim Piskuric left DLA Phillips Fox for Maddocks;
- In August last year, veteran DLA Phillips Fox construction partner Chris Edquist left the firm to join Holding Redlich; and
- In late May 2009 environmental law specialist Daniel Clay left DLA Phillips Fox for Minter Ellison,
From what has been reported, therefore, we have seen the loss of the “media” team, the shrinking of the construction team, the withering of the environment group, and a corresponding strengthening of the corporate and banking groups. We thus probably didn’t need the following anonymous comments, sent to us on the weekend from a DLAPH spy, to draw the logical inference:
The latest talk around the DLAPH corridors which I heard a few different times last week is that the banking team will soon be increasing its office floor space. This might sound like small news to FS but here in the office it has added to the fear that management is trying to push smaller and less profitable teams out the door to enhance our appeal to DLA Piper as an Australian merger target.
Do you think management is consciously trimming the DLA Phillips Fat?
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This story would have benefited greatly from the matters raised being put to the people who are the subject of the story. For example, the partners who have left Phillips Fox might have been contacted and asked about their motications in leaving the partnership. Similarly, Tony Holland might have been contacted, and asked to comment on the story. While the enquiries might go unanswered, it would at least bring some balance to the matter.
Not that the partners in question would even respond, but since when has FS based its stories on facts and statistics? They do not guarantee the accuracy of the stories, merely leave them open for speculation by its readership.
My understanding is that the loss of the “entire media team” (ie, one partner and some add-ons) wasn’t exactly mourned.
As for the others, I think you could say that if you looked closely at the comings and goings at any firm, you’d be able to justify a similar story. might be a while before PF becomes another MSJ, however…