DLA Piper: all the new appointments to its International Board

DLA Piper announced several new appointments to its international board.

First of all, Bruno Giuffrè (PICTURED) has been re-elected and Katherine Chew, Caoimhe Clarkin, and Sonia de Kondserovsky have been appointed to the Board of DLA Piper International. So, effective 1 January 2025:

• Bruno Giuffrè (Milan) started a second term on the International Board. He leads the firm’s Insurance team in Italy and advises clients on the legal issues relating to corporate and professional risks, and their litigation and insurance implications.
• Katherine Chew (Singapore) joined the International Board. She leads the M&A and corporate reorganisations practice in Singapore. She has extensive experience advising on corporate matters across South-East Asia, focusing in particular on cross-border M&A and a wide range of pre-acquisition and pre-closing reorganisations, post-acquisition integrations and tax driven reorganisations. She is also a ranked employment lawyer.
• Caoimhe Clarkin (Dublin) joined the International Board. She is the head of the litigation and regulatory practice in Ireland and advises domestic and international corporate clients on a whole spectrum of contentious and regulatory issues across a broad range of sectors and in particular consumer goods, food and retail, FS and insurance. She advises on risk and crisis management and on how to avoid, manage and resolve disputes and supports clients on managing their relationships with various regulators in Ireland and abroad.
• Sonia de Kondserovsky (Paris) joined the International Board. She is an M&A partner, and Head of the Life Sciences sector in France and covers a wide range of transactions, including acquisitions of listed and non-listed companies, cross-border transactions, strategic partnerships, collaborations and licensing agreements, industrial spin-offs, investments and fund raisings and joint-ventures.

Stokes named global co-chair of DLA Piper’s technology sector team

Plus, effective as of 1 January 2025, UK-based partner Gareth Stokes succeeded Mark O’Conor as Global Co-Chair and International Sector Head of the firm’s Technology Sector team. Stokes joined fellow Global Co-Chairs, Erin Gibson (San Diego) and Trent Dykes (Seattle).

This leadership change follows Mark O’Conor’s appointment to the firm’s Executive Committee as Managing Director for Sectors, a role overseeing the International sector offering and go-to-market strategy.

Gareth joined DLA Piper in 2008 and most recently led the firm’s Technology Sector team in the UK. His practice sees him advising on complex transactions, contracting and outsourcing projects and the development and strategic rollout of AI programmes for global organisations, while internally he has co-led the firm’s 450-strong AI working group.

Mark O’Conor joined in 2005 and has been the Technology International Sector Head and Global Co-Chair since 2022. Prior to this he was the UK Country Managing Partner (between 2013 and 2015). He regularly advises multinational corporations and governments on outsourcing, public procurement, digital transformation, cloud computing and AI matters.