DLA Piper knocks Bates Wells partner

DLA Piper knocks Bates Wells partner

Six years later, Emma Dowden-Teale links its former competitor firm

As part of its UK contentious public law team in London, DLA Piper has appointed a partner from Bates Wells.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Emma Dowden-Teale joins the firm's litigation and regulatory group after working at Bates Wells for six years, counting five as a partner. She previously worked as an associate in DAC Beachcroft's regulatory and public law group.

Dowden-Teale will manage DLA Piper's contentious public law practice in the UK. She will be tasked with improving relationships with the firm's private sector clients, which the firm says are engaged in highly regulated sectors in the country as well as abroad.

She will also be responsible for building on the appointment of the team to the UK Government Legal Service panels in December. Around 19 firms competed for the four-year contract, which worth £430 million. DLA Piper was one of the firms to win the contract. The contract was divided into two lots, with DLA Piper winning both the lots as the recipient of legal advice and services as well as financial and complex legal services.

Other firms including DWF and Pinsent Masons have also earned a position, but Magic Circle trio Clifford Chance, Linklaters and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer were not selected.

Dowden-Teale's practice focuses primarily on the intersection between the public and private sector. The public side of her practice includes the drafting and implementation of policies and documents, as well as defending government organizations in judicial review proceedings. She provides compliance advice to clients in the private sector and also challenges decisions in the public sector, the firm stated.

"Emma is already highly regarded by our team of contentious public law specialists and I am confident the team will make excellent progress under her guidance in this strategically important area of law for our clients," said Neil Bowker, head of DLA Piper's litigation and regulatory practice in the UK.

Dowden-Teale joins DLA Piper just days after the firm hired more than 25 Chicago-based deals lawyers from smaller rival Honigman to expand its middle market private equity offerings, an area in which DLA Piper has long been a leader.

In November, 2021, the firm has strengthened its public law practice in Paris by bringing on Ruxandra Lazar from King & Spalding as a partner, with Lazar having a background in litigation before administrative courts and the Constitutional Council which spans more than 15 years of experience.

It was announced in July that Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's Paris-based head of the public international law department, Ben Juratowitch QC, was to join Essex Courts Chambers in London. The move underscored the set's appeal to City solicitors who wanted to look for lucrative and conflict-free advocacy work while also developing their arbitrator careers.