DLA Piper’s Strategic Plan Has $200K ‘Cover Charge’ for New Clients
Updated: DLA Piper may not want you as a new client if you can’t commit to legal fees of at least $200,000 a year.
The law firm’s strategic plan for 2011 through 2014 reportedly calls for the $200,000 minimum billing threshold for new clients in the United States, Legal Week reports. The idea is to reduce conflicts in which the law firm is barred from taking on large matters because of work on smaller ones.
While European managing partner Andrew Darwin spoke of the firm’s desire for a more structured process of taking on new clients and a review of existing clients, according to Legal Week, Terry O’Malley, DLA Piper’s US managing partner would not confirm any details of a minimum billing threshold for new clients at the firm’s U.S. offices.
“To suggest that we have drawn a line in the sand based on the financial size of our client relationships is inaccurate and misleading,” O’Malley wrote in a statement to the ABA Journal. “DLA Piper will continue working with clients of all sizes to bring flexibility and predictability to those relationships, whether those companies are start-ups or Fortune 500 institutions.”
Should the requirements for new clients prove true, which Law Shucks refers to as a “cover charge”, Legal Blog Watch has some questions about the arrangement. They are:
• Is a similar arrangement “quietly in place” at other law firms?
• If it’s a novel idea, will clients go along with it?
• What happens if a client doesn’t live up to a minimum-spend commitment?
Updated at 4:40 p.m. on Feb. 10 to include comments from Darwin and O’Malley.
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