DLA Piper shortlisted by the Financial Times for five FT North America Innovative Lawyers awards

DLA Piper is pleased to announce it has been shortlisted by the Financial Times for five FT North America Innovative Lawyers 2020 awards. The Financial Times announced that the firm is one of the top ten Most Innovative Law Firms and is also one of the top ten Most Digital Law Firms in North America for 2020. This is in addition to three individual awards. For the last four years in a row, DLA Piper has been recognized by the Financial Times as one of the top legal innovators in North America.

“The foundation of our firm is and will always be a bedrock of support for those who are willing to push forward with innovations that benefit our clients, our firm and on behalf of both the local and global community,” said Roger Meltzer, DLA Piper's global co-chairman and co-chairman for the Americas.

The publication recognized DLA Piper partner Edward “Smitty” Smith as an individual leader for his work as deputy managing partner of the firm’s Washington, DC office and his integral role in the office’s rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its ongoing success during the crisis. Smith was also recognized for advising T-Mobile on its acquisition of Sprint, during which he helped T-Mobile design, develop and implement a series of programs and specialized products to help close the digital divide for low-income customers and close the homework gap for America’s schoolchildren. He also worked with T-Mobile and a coalition of national civil rights organizations to develop a plan to improve T-Mobile’s internal and external diversity and inclusion practices.

Partner Daniel Garen was recognized in the award category “Digitising the practice of law” for the development of DLA Piper’s Compliance Atlas app, which allows companies to provide quick access to important  documents and forms to employees through their mobile devices. By providing actionable and practical information in an easy-to-access manner, the app allows employees to operate expeditiously.

Finally, the Financial Times recognized partner Kristi Kung for her digital health work during the COVID-19 pandemic in the award category “Multidisciplinary teams.” From the outset of the pandemic, DLA Piper lawyers have continuously monitored federal and state governmental actions that are changing the healthcare industry and communicated to clients and to the public the efforts of both regulators and innovators to use digital technologies to thwart the continued spread of the virus. Led by Kung, DLA Piper attorneys across multiple legal disciplines and geographies helped to create regional, national and global telehealth networks and partnered with clients to quickly expand remote patient monitoring and digital health applications to increase access to care. The DLA Piper healthcare and life sciences teams were aided in their efforts through the expansion of internal non-lawyer resources including security consultants, political strategists, and a health economist. These different perspectives allowed the DLA Piper team to approach challenges multi-dimensionally and structure innovative solutions.