Denton Wilde Sapte LLP (informally Dentons) was an international law firm headquartered in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

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. It merged with the United States-based law firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal in September 2010, forming SNR Denton. At the time of the merger, Denton Wilde Sapte had 16 offices and employed around 610 lawyers.

History

Denton Wilde Sapte was established on 1 February 2000 through a merger between the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

-based law firms Denton Hall and Wilde Sapte. The merger created what was at the time the UK's 11th-largest law firm measured by revenues. Denton Hall had been established in 1788 by Sam Denton, and Thomas Wilde founded what was to become Wilde Sapte with partner Samuel Archer Hussey in 1785. In September 1988 Anthony Alexander, the Senior Partner of City law firm Herbert Oppenheimer Nathan & Vanayk, had joined Denton Hall Burgin & Warren along with 17 partners and 62 other lawyers. Denton Hall was a co-founder of the international

alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

of law firms, ''Denton International'', which was dissolved on 31 December 2003 after the partnership of German member Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek voted against a merger with Denton Wilde Sapte. In 2004 and 2005 Denton Wilde Sapte suffered a significant number of partner defections to rival firms, including of a group of 11 technology, media and telecoms partners to

DLA Piper DLA Piper is a multinational law firm with offices in over 40 countries throughout the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. In 2021, it had a total revenue of US$3.47 billion, an average profit per equity partner of U ...

in 2004. It converted from a

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to a

limited liability partnership A limited liability partnership (LLP) is a partnership in which some or all partners (depending on the jurisdiction) have limited liabilities. It therefore can exhibit elements of partnerships and corporations. In an LLP, each partner is not ...

on 1 November 2006. On 26 May 2010 Denton Wilde Sapte and the United States-based law firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal announced their intention to merge. On 30 September 2010 the merger between Denton Wilde Sapte and Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal was formally completed, establishing SNR Denton.

References

{{Legal services in the United Kingdom Defunct law firms of the United Kingdom Law firms based in London Intellectual property law firms Patent law firms Law firms established in 2000 2000 establishments in England Law firms disestablished in 2010 2010 disestablishments in England

History

See also

References