Under the guidance of a new chairman and CEO, DLA Phillips Fox will transform from an insurance and government work centred firm into a full-service business law firm with a focus on corporate and banking & finance sectors.
David East’s appointment to chairman of the board at DLA Phillips Fox comes after the announcement that Tony Holland will be heading up the firm as managing partner in February. In an exclusive interview with ALB, East set out an ambitious strategy for the law firm.
“We’re on a changed program here,” he said. “The firm has had a long history in some key industries in insurance and government but the changed focus is more of a business law firm focus in terms of the corporate and finance practices in particular.”
The appointment of Holland, who brings with him a wealth of project finance experience, is the first step to making that goal a reality. This goal was further reinforced when DLA Phillips Fox announced that it had secured the services of PPP specialist Alex Guy from DLA Piper’s London office. DLA Phillips Fox’s credentials as a business law firm were reinforced with the appointment to the Westpac panel late last year and the subsequent confirmation of that position in June when Westpac re-tendered its panel and dropped Clayton Utz and Corrs Chambers Westgarth.
“We see our positioning as consistent with DLA Piper in a similar focus on providing broad business services to corporates and that’s where we are moving to,” East said. “We are looking at the market and will be looking to attract quality lateral recruitments in the banking & finance and corporate space.”
The relationship with DLA Piper, which was cemented in November 2006, provides DLA Phillips Fox with the opportunity of accessing key staff in the corporate areas such as Guy. “We are continuing to see a crossover of their people joining us or our people joining them so there’s ongoing secondment between the firms,” East said.
The prospect of a full merger between the two firms is “certainly an option” but there is nothing conclusive, East said. “We’re looking at working together in all sorts of ways, collaborating on pitches, sharing clients and referring clients,” he said. “Certainly, the merger prospect is an option but there is nothing concluded around that.”
In the near term the firm will focus on adjusting to its new management team and looking to bolster its corporate and business & finance practice areas through lateral recruitment. East believes that the firm’s history of working in the government space, coupled with its newly acquired finance expertise, will allow it to compete with firms like Clayton Utz for infrastructure work from the government.
“We’ve got good government connections and we’ve got expertise in that project work so we think our value proposition is very attractive and we’re pretty excited about the opportunity,” East said. “It’s an area where we have additional capability with the recruitment of Alex Guy so we would see ourselves absolutely playing in that space.”
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