Irwin Mitchell in line to gain four partners from DLA Piper Manchester
DLA Piper is understood to be losing four partners from its Manchester office to rival Irwin Mitchell.
All four are real estate specialists. The group is thought to include Manchester property head Anita Weightman and former local managing partner Roy Beckett.
The exits follow that of DLA Piper’s Manchester finance litigation head Tim Buckingham, who joined Eversheds in Leeds last week (12 October 2012).
A spokesperson for DLA Piper said none of the four had resigned but would make no further comment. Irwin Mitchell could not be reached.
The past few months have been a turbulent period for DLA Piper’s regional office network, best illustrated by the long-running row over the personal stakes taken by several partners including co-chief executive Sir Nigel Knowles in ABS LawVest.
It is understood that as well as the anger internally caused by a presumably select group of partners taking stakes in LawVest at the exclusion of others, there was also a fear that DLA Piper would cannibalise its own lower-value work stream around the UK in favour of feeding work to LawVest.
Compounding this worry for regional partners, earlier this year DLA Piper launched a review of its practice including an assessment of its office network and partner performance (1 June 2012).
Readers' comments (4)
Anonymous | 19-Oct-2012 10:35 pm
DLA booting out underperforming partners to make room for their best associates. Explains how firms like Irwin Mitchell & Dickie Dees are able to get DLA partners, when normally they wouldn't look at making such a move.
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Grubby Vest | 20-Oct-2012 10:08 pm
Will they resign should Nigel fail to? What is going on? If they have not resigned then how is Irwin Mitchell going to gain? Will Nigel join Irwin Mitchell?
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Anonymous | 22-Oct-2012 10:23 pm
This is curious given the strength and history of the relationship betweem Weighman and Knowles.
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Anonymous | 24-Oct-2012 11:45 am
This is pretty big news North West. 100% of the full equity real estate partners leaving - they are the ones who bring in the work!! So, may make room for associates, but what work do they intend to do!
Looks like a decison has already been made by Tony Angel, to start the northern ofice cull.
The Irwin link must be Paul Firth, ex DLA Sheffield OMP, now Irwin's.
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