Financial Times ranks DLA Piper among the most innovative law firms in Europe

DLA Piper has been recognised as one of the top 10 most innovative law firms in Europe at the Financial Times’ 2019 European Innovative Lawyers report, an annual ranking assessing lawyers on their innovation both for clients and in their own businesses.

The firm received praise for its work across a number of innovative, ground-breaking and complex matters and initiatives:

• "Standout" for helping charity UP Zambia extend its work on child justice into the Copperbelt province of the country, conducting research interviews with children to help inform the charity's work and pursuing leads on individual cases. The firm advocated for policy and structural changes in Zambia, resulting in the appointment of a new judicial leader for child justice tasked with training magistrates and judges.
• "Highly commended" for substantially expanding the Global M&A Intelligence Report, a comprehensive analysis of global deal terms, insights and trends in market practice across different deal types and jurisdictions. Derived from analysis of more than 2,000 of the firm's M&A deals, the report establishes what market practice is in each jurisdiction, helping clients make data-driven decision on deal terms.
• "Highly commended" for developing Notify, an algorithmic tool to help clients access both the severity of a data breach and whether they are required to report it to authorities within the set 72-hour window. Lawyers and technologists across the firm's European offices collaborated with the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, using official reporting standards to develop the algorithm, removing personal bias in decision making.
• "Highly commended" for enabling the takeover of Spanish toll road operator Abertis by Italian transport company Atlantia for $18.2bn. Lawyers gained regulatory clearance in the US, Canada, Argentina, Chile, Brazil and France to enable global expansion.
• "Highly commended" for creating the Digital Securities Alliance platform, launched in April 2019. The tool can be used to tokenise or digitise traditional equity or debt capital in compliance with global securities regulations.
• "Commended" for working with the Government of Afghanistan to draft five new laws and amend three existing laws in order to improve the business environment in the country by aligning existing corporate and insolvency laws with the World Bank's 'Doing Business' indicators.

Now in its fourteenth year, the FT Innovative Lawyers Report - published in conjunction with research partner RSG Consulting - has become one of the top legal rankings in Europe. The Report is based on research and benchmarks from RSG Consulting, editorial from FT journalists and a dynamic collaboration with the profession.