Headquarters Decentralised Major practice areas General practice | No. of lawyers Approx. 7,700 Founded 2 April 2013 | |
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No. of offices 136 across 57 countries Key people Joseph Andrew
(Chairman of the Board and the Advisory Committee)
Elliott Portnoy
(Chief Executive Officer)
Peng Xuefeng
(Chairman) Date founded 28 March 2013 (by merger) Revenue 2.12 billion USD (2015–2016) | ||
Dentons is a multinational law firm. It is the world's largest law firm measured by number of lawyers, and the world's sixth-largest measured by 2015/16 revenues. It was founded in March 2013 by the merger of SNR Denton, Fraser Milner Casgrain and Salans; Dentons subsequently merged with the Chinese law firm Dacheng in 2015. Dentons has more than 136 offices across 50-plus countries, with approximately 7,700 lawyers. The firm is decentralised and has no headquarters, although the firm's senior leadership are primarily based in Beijing, London and Washington D.C.
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Dentons consists of multiple legal entities, namely Dentons Canada LLP, Dentons Europe LLP, Dentons UKMEA LLP, Dentons US LLP and their respective affiliates. These entities cooperate through a Swiss Verein called Salans FMC SNR Denton Group, which does not itself provide legal services. The firm is called Dentons in English and all languages other than Chinese, in which it is called 大成 (Dacheng). The logo features the Chinese characters globally, with the lettering 大成 Dentons.
Dentons is ranked as one of the world's top 20 Global Elite law firms by a survey of in-house counsel around the world.
Telling the dentons story
History
On 11 November 2012, SNR Denton, Salans and the Canada-based Fraser Milner Casgrain announced a three-way merger, forming a new law firm structured as a Swiss Verein and named Dentons. The partners of the three firms ratified the merger on 28 November 2012, and it was completed on 28 March 2013. Dentons opened an office in Houston, Texas in September 2013.
On January 26, 2015, Dentons announced that it was combining with a Chinese firm, Dacheng (Chinese: 大成) which was completed in November 2015. The new firm is called 大成 in Chinese, and is called Dentons in other languages. The logo features the Chinese characters for Dacheng globally, with the lettering 大成 Dentons. Following the Dacheng combination, Dentons surpassed Baker & McKenzie and DLA Piper, the world’s previous top law firms by headcount, by at least 2,500 lawyers.
2015 saw several other major regional expansions for the firm. In April, Dentons US agreed to a merger with Atlanta-based law firm McKenna Long & Aldridge which was completed in June of that year. The firm also opened new offices in Hungary, Luxembourg, Singapore and South Africa during 2015 and announced combinations with firms in Australia, Colombia, and Mexico. The firm also launched Nextlaw Labs, a business accelerator focused on investing in, developing and deploying new technologies to transform the practice of law, in May 2015. Dentons also announced in November 2016 that it would become the first global law firm with a footprint in Central America by combining with Muñoz Global, adding offices in Panama, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
In December 2016, Dentons launched in Australia and Papua New Guinea by combining with the Australian law firm Gadens. The Sydney, Perth and Port Moresby offices of Gadens joined Dentons, while the Adelaide and Brisbane offices became "associate offices" and the Melbourne office remained independent. The Gadens combination resulted in Dentons having approximately 7,600 lawyers serving 57 countries.
Main practice areas
Dentons' main practice areas include:
Offices
Dentons is a polycentric firm with 125+ offices covering North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, China, and Africa.