DLA Piper Announces Global Co-Chair Will Retire

Sir Nigel Knowles, who has led DLA Piper for decades and oversaw its growth into one of the largest law firms in the world, will retire as the firm’s global co-chair and senior partner, the firm said on Thursday.

Knowles, based in London, became global co-chair of DLA Piper in January 2015 after serving as the firm’s co-CEO and managing partner for nearly 20 years. In retiring as a partner, Knowles will become a consultant to the firm.

“The creation of DLA Piper is my proudest achievement, and I will always remain close to the firm, but now is the right time for me to stand down safe in the knowledge that I am leaving the firm in very capable hands,” said Knowles in a statement.

DLA Piper said that it will immediately begin an election process to find a successor to Knowles, who will be appointed as of May 1.

Simon Levine, global co-CEO of DLA Piper, said that Knowles played “a huge part” in transforming the firm from one with six U.K. offices to the global firm it is today.

Knowles sat at the helm of DLA Piper and helped execute and integrate a series of large scale mergers that led it to become among the world’s largest, with more than $2.4 billion in revenue and 3,700 lawyers.

The firm had its beginnings in 2005, when U.K. law firm DLA LLP merged with Chicago-based Piper Rudnick and Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich of San Diego.

The new firm then quickly acquired competitor lawyers and struck strategic alliances abroad. It opened offices throughout the Middle East, Munich, Germany, Poland and elsewhere. In 2011, DLA Piper and Australian-based DLA Phillips Fox merged, which was called the world’s largest law firm at that time.