DLA Piper wins Kraft appointment after competitive tender

DLA Piper has been appointed as preferred adviser to Kraft Foods after a competitive tender process.

The non-exclusive appointment, effective from 1 January 2010, will see the national firm advise Kraft on day-to-day matters including advertising, contract/commercial, corporate, employment, food law, IT, litigation and real estate, as the world's second-largest food company attempts to drive down its legal costs.

However, it is understood that DLA will not advise Kraft on major M&A deals such as its proposed takeover of Cadbury, on which Clifford Chance has taken the lead role with a team led by London corporate partner Guy Norman.

DLA has appointed relationship partners for Kraft across all jurisdictions, including Baltimore-based litigation partner John Dougherty for the Americas; Asia managing director Alistair Da Costa and Singapore-based corporate partner Sheela Moorthy for the Asia-Pacific region; Moscow-based CIS corporate and M&A head Delphine Nougayrede for Central and Eastern Europe; and Europe, Middle East and Africa and London corporate partner Robert Bishop for the EU and Canada.

Bishop commented: "Given the current economic environment, we are acutely aware of our clients' needs to control costs across the board. Legal services are no exception. Our global footprint and breadth of service offering leave us uniquely positioned to exploit operational efficiencies as the route to delivering even better value to our clients."

DLA Piper on the Legal Week Wiki