Baker McKenzie

Baker McKenzie takes “global” to another level with dozens of offices spanning every continent. The firm’s geographic and practice-area diversification has enabled it to ride out financial storms while outrunning a legion of BigLaw competitors. The firm counsels more than half of the world’s largest public companies in a range of practices.

Parlez-Vous ‘International’?

It all started in 1948, when Russell Baker and John McKenzie shared a cab and discussed the idea of an international law firm. By 1949, the two had launched Baker & McKenzie, with Baker focused on building the international practice while McKenzie handled the litigation work. The rest is history. 

These days, any firm with a few outposts outside its home city or a number of foreign-based clients proudly awards itself an “international law firm” sash. Baker McKenzie, however, pretty much coined the term: it is by many measures the largest law firm in the world, with more than 6,000 attorneys (one-third of whom are partners) covering dozens of jurisdictions. Thanks to the firm’s global footprint (78 offices in 47 countries, at last count), Baker McKenzie remains unique among law firms. The firm continues to grow—with an average of one new office being added each year since its inception, the firm has defined rapid and steady growth without losing its reputation for quality legal work.

Crossing Borders, Crunching Numbers

While the firm wears many hats, it is most known for its cross-border work and its tax practice. The firm advises on an array of practice areas, including antitrust, capital markets, employment, intellectual property, international commercial and trade, M&A, private equity, real estate, restructuring, tax, and the list goes on. And, of course, the firm’s reach in these areas is global. In fact, according to the firm, almost two-thirds of firm revenues are derived from cross-border deals where clients are in five-plus countries.

Within the firm's deal portfolio is a consistently growing number of high-profile, cross-border, and domestic M&A transactions, including public and private M&A, joint ventures and strategic alliances, divestitures and carve-outs, SPACs, and more. Baker McKenzie's M&A practice has been ranked #1 in cross-border deals by volume over the past decade by Refinitiv.

Baker McKenzie is also consistently among the top five firms in Vault’s Tax Practice Area ranking. With 950 tax practitioners—lawyers, economists, and advisers—in more than 40 countries, the firm’s tax department assists clients around the globe in such areas as customs, economic services, real estate tax, state and local tax, supply chain tax planning, tax despite resolution, tax issues relating to M&A and reorganization, general tax planning and policy, and more.

Jet Setters

Given its international reach, it may come as no surprise that Baker McKenzie offers its associates ample international work experience—and that experience may include living abroad. Through the firm’s Associate Training Program (“ATP”), associates live and work abroad for a period of two months to two years. This inter-office secondment aims to give associates insight into the firm’s global work, contribute to associates’ professional development, and bolster the firm’s transactional strategies, among other things.

• Baker McKenzie advised Spanish multinational Iberdrola in the sale of its Mexican combined cycle gas division to Mexico Infrastructure Partners (MIP) for $6 billion. 
• Baker McKenzie advised Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) in a strategic collaboration and license agreement with Amphista. This collaboration leveraged Amphista's proprietary Eclipsys™ targeted protein degradation platform to develop novel protein degrading therapeutics. 
• Baker McKenzie advised McMaster University in a challenge to its mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, successfully obtaining a dismissal.

• Best Law Firms for Women, 2022—Seramount 
• Gold Award, 2022—Stonewall's Global Workplace Equality Index of Top Global Employers for LGBTQ+ People 
• Mansfield Certification Plus, 2022—Diversity Lab
• Outstanding Firm for Diversity and Inclusion, 2022; shortlisted for 2023—Chambers & Partners Diversity & Inclusion Awards: North America