Baker McKenzie

Co-founding partner Russell Baker, born in Wisconsin and raised in New Mexico, opened his early practice, Baker & Simpson, in Chicago, in 1925, following graduation from the University of Chicago School of Law. Baker had early exposure to the Spanish language and other cultures, and his firm provided legal services to Chicago's growing Mexican American community. The firm later advised U.S. companies investing in Latin America.

In 1949, the firm relaunched with John McKenzie, a litigator who had graduated from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, who took charge of the litigation practice, as Baker built an international practice. Through the 1950s, the firm's client roster expanded.

In 2001, the Firm employed 3000 attorneys and garnered $1 billion in revenues.[11] In 2005, 70 partners, and other legal staff, from the New York office of disbanding international firm Coudert Brothers joined Baker McKenzie.

In August 2014, Baker McKenzie revealed it was the first law firm to break through the $2.5bn revenues barrier since the financial crisis, and that it was the largest firm in the world by headcount.[12]

The firm's global chair, from 2016, until his death in April 2019, was former London managing partner Paul Rawlinson, who was the 15th chair, and the first British chair of the firm.[13] Rawlinson had succeeded Eduardo C. Leite who was chair of Baker McKenzie from 2010 to 2016.[14] In September 2019 the Firm announced that Milton Cheng had been elected as the global chair for four years, commenced October 2019.

Baker McKenzie became an international firm beginning in 1955, when a lawyer in Venezuela contacted Baker McKenzie about opening a joint venture office in Caracas. Russell Baker's son, Donald, moved to Caracas to launch the satellite office. Within the next three years, offices were opened in Washington, D.C., Amsterdam, Brussels, Zurich, New York and São Paulo.

Baker McKenzie was also the first international law firm to enter many local markets in the Asia Pacific region, starting with the Philippines, in 1963, followed by Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Taipei, attaining the largest geographical spread among international law firms within the region, with 17 offices in total.

Rather than practicing U.S. law abroad, Baker McKenzie trained local lawyers, often bringing them to its Chicago base for an initial period, or temporarily relocating U.S. attorneys to the foreign office, to oversee the establishment of the practice. By 1978, Baker McKenzie had 26 offices in 20 countries.

In 1986, the firm established offices in Northwestern Mexico to facilitate legal transactions connected to industrial development in that region. In 1989, Baker McKenzie was one of the first firms to open offices in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe after the Iron Curtain fell.[15] By 1990, the firm operated 49 offices on six continents, employing around 1500 attorneys, and generating $400 million in revenues.

In 1993, the Firm received license number 001 to practice in the PRC.

Baker McKenzie is one of the first law firms to have adopted a functional outsourcing operation, which is now being emulated by other firms. Its offshore operations in Manila, which include marketing, business research, and IT and computer maintenance support, was profiled, in January 2006, by BusinessWeek magazine. The shared services center marked its 15th anniversary in the country by investing in a new hub in Bonifacio Global City.[16] In August 2014, the firm opened its second global services center in Belfast.[17] A further investment by Baker McKenzie into Belfast was announced in July 2018. [18] Announcements followed later the same year about a third center [19] in Tampa, Florida and a fourth in Buenos Aires in 2019 [20].

In October 2006, Unilever chose the firm to manage its global trademark portfolio, the largest in the world, with over 160,000 registrations, marking the first time a multinational company outsourced its trademark management to a law firm on such a large scale.[21] In July 2013, co-founding partner Russell Baker was named one of American Lawyer's top 50 innovators for pioneering ideas and initiatives that changed the world of BigLaw.[22]

In April 2015, Baker McKenzie announced it was the first international law firm to enter into a joint operation in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone with the PRC law firm FenXun Partners.[23]

The firm, in 2018, implemented financial integration in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa region (EMEA), similar to its programs in North America and Asia Pacific. Baker McKenzie's Amsterdam, Antwerp, Bahrain, Barcelona, Brussels, Doha, ECLP, Jeddah, Johannesburg, London, Madrid, Riyadh and Stockholm branches have been financially integrated, as part of a long-term strategy to group the firm's 77 offices into three profit centers. The initiative, known as EMEA+, is led by partner Fiona Carlin.[24]

Baker & McKenzie's New York office is located at 452 Fifth Avenue

In 1999, Christine Lagarde, the Paris managing partner and an antitrust and labor lawyer, was elected chair of the global executive committee, the first woman to lead Baker McKenzie;[25] she was chair for five years. In 2004, Forbes listed Lagarde as No. 76 in its list of "Most Powerful Women in the World."[26] She then served as France's Minister of Finance. In June 2011, she was elected as the first woman to become managing director of the International Monetary Fund.[27]

Globally (as of FY18), 40 percent of the firm's lawyers, 30 percent of its partners, and 19 percent of its leaders, are women and it continues to partner with organizations such as the 30% Club, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Women for Women International, and The NEXUS Institute.

Since 2007, the firm has supported the Rijksmuseum to expand its international photography collection spanning the late nineteenth century to 1980.

In October 2012, Baker McKenzie launched a cross-border listings app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The first of its kind, the app is an interactive legal tool designed to help professionals users compare and consider global listing options. Since then BM has also launched a Global Equity Matrix App, the Healthcare MapApp and the Antitrust Dawn Raid App. [28]

Since February 2013, Baker McKenzie has worked closely with the Economist Corporate Network part of the Economist Group on a series of reports on Asia including in April 2016, "ASEAN Connections: How mega-regional trade and investment initiatives in Asia will shape business strategy in ASEAN and beyond".[29] More recently two reports have been produced on BRI, exploring how China is taking steps to reboot its approach to BRI projects with the goal to increase international participation and encouraging a multilateral approach that is more inclusive, sustainable and transparent. [30]

In March 2015, Baker McKenzie produced its China FDI report, "Reaching New Heights", with specialist data research company Rhodium Group, which for the first time revealed the true story of Chinese investment into the EU over the past decade. It was the first comprehensive and reliable picture of Chinese investments in the EU-28 countries from 2000 to 2014, broken down by country and sector. As of May 2020 the report continues to be published on a six monthly basis and receive extensive media coverage.[31][32]

Each year Baker McKenzie produces its Global Transactions Forecast with Oxford Economics which projects M&A and IPO activity and provides key findings at a global, regional and sector level.[33]. In April 2020 BM and OE released a new report 'Beyond COVID 19: Supply Chain Resilience Holds Key to Recovery' which highlighted manufacturing output will take at least 12 months to recover to 2019 levels. [34]

Baker & McKenzie has consistently been a part of the top 5 firms in Vault's Tax Practice Area ranking.[35]

In January 2014, Baker McKenzie was second in the legal sector and 19th overall in Stonewall's top 100 most gay-friendly employers. In January 2016, Baker McKenzie was named third UK employer for LGBT staff according to Stonewall's Workplace Equality Index.[36] More recently, the Firm was once again named one of Stonewall's 2018 Top Global Employers for the third consecutive year. In addition to the Top Global Employer ranking, Baker McKenzie was also named Top Global LGBT+ Network of the Year 2018.[37]

In 2015, Baker McKenzie ranked in the top 20 for The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to work for.

In July 2016 Working Mother magazine identified the 50 best law firms for women in the UK. Baker McKenzie was included for its Global Gender Initiative which boosts women through a 12-month training program.[38]

For the last seven years Thomson Reuters has ranked Baker McKenzie number one in the world by number of cross-border deals - more than 65% of the Firm's deals are cross-border - and for the eleventh year in a row the Firm was ranked first for deals with emerging market involvement, by both number of announced and completed number of deals.[39]

In October 2017, Baker McKenzie retained its position as the world's strongest global law firm brand in the 2017 Acritas Global Elite Law Firm Brand Index. The firm extended its lead by seven points compared to 2016, and received an overall score of 100 - over twice the score of the firm ranked second place. Lisa Hart Shepherd CEO of Acritas says, "Baker McKenzie has achieved an excellent brand performance this year, extending its already impressive lead. The firm continues to be first to come to mind when it comes to international legal work and this brand differentiation combined with its extensive reach and global relationships enables it to stand out in the homogeneous legal market.".[40] In new analysis of Acritas Stars, Baker McKenzie received 192 lawyer nominations - 40 of those being women. The report also highlights Baker McKenzie's Léna Sersiron in an exclusive group of 13 women who have been nominated at least three separate times by different General Counsels.[41]

Baker McKenzie was named among the top 10 Most Innovative Law Firms in North America by the Financial Times in its 2017 Innovative Lawyers Report, considered one of the top legal rankings in the US, Canada and Mexico.[42]

Baker McKenzie is one of only three global law firms that featured in the top 10 Financial Times Innovative Lawyers rankings in the Americas, Asia Pacific and EMEA in 2016.[43]

In June 2018, Baker McKenzie took home a record nine awards at Euromoney's European Women in Business law awards, including overall Best International Firm for Women in Business Law for the second year running.[44]

Baker McKenzie's Sydney based, former head of global environmental markets and climate change practice, Martijn Wilder AM, was announced overall winner for the Financial Times Asia Pacific Innovative Lawyers Awards 2018 in an awards ceremony in Hong Kong.[45]

Baker McKenzie London partner Samantha Mobley was nominated as an EMpower Advocate, as part of the EMpower Ethnic Minority Role Models 2018, by the Financial Times. This honour is awarded to individuals who have demonstrated contribution to ethnic minority inclusion in the work place.[46]

As of August 2018, it is ranked as the second-largest international law firm in the world by headcount[47] with 13,000 employees including 6,076 fee earners and 4,700 lawyers on a full-time equivalent basis in 78 offices across 47 countries.[48] It is the largest law firm in the United States by headcount. It is also ranked as the third largest law firm in the world in terms of revenue with US$2.89 billion [3] in annual revenue in FY2018. It is the largest international law firm in Asia Pacific, Continental Europe and Latin America. In December 2016 and as part of a major visual identity change, Baker & McKenzie re-branded and dropped the '&' from its name to become Baker McKenzie.

In 2006, Baker McKenzie wrote the amicus brief of the Council of Parent Attorneys & Advocates (COPAA) in support of the petition for a Writ of Certiorari in Winkelman v. Parma City School District, and later, COPAA's amicus brief on the merits.[49] It argued that parents have the right to represent themselves in court to enforce their IDEA rights and protect their children's access to a free appropriate public education. This led to a unanimous Supreme Court decision in June 2007 granting parents the right to proceed without counsel on behalf of children with disabilities.[50]

In December 2009, Baker McKenzie won a landmark tax case against the U.S. Internal Revenue Service for Symantec Corporation. The IRS had claimed that the VERITAS Software Corporation, which Symantec had subsequently acquired in 2005, owed over $1 billion in back taxes, penalties and interest as a result of VERITAS non-U.S. operations. Symantec took the case to the U.S. Tax Court where Baker & McKenzie argued that the IRS position was arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable. In an opinion by Judge Maurice Foley, the U.S. Tax Court decided in favor of Symantec.[51][52]

Baker McKenzie is representing Microsoft in Microsoft Corporation v. Internal Revenue Service [53]

In 2012, Baker McKenzie helped overturn Paul Chambers' conviction under the Communications Act of 2003 (the Twitter Joke Trial) for tweeting a "message of a menacing character." Chambers, an accountant, had tweeted a "silly joke"[54] about "blowing up the Robin Hood airport in South Yorkshire." The team advising on his appeal was led by Preiskel & Co's David Allen Green, John Cooper QC of 25 Bedford Row and Sarah Przybylska of 2 Hare Court. The Baker McKenzie team, which acted on the case pro bono from 2010, included partners Harry Small, Tom Cassels and Ben Allgrove.[55]

Baker McKenzie is currently representing Facebook Inc. in its dispute with the IRS over the value of assets the company transferred to its Irish holding company. [56]Lawyers with the U.S. Department of Justice asked for a court order forcing Facebook to provide information to the IRS related to agreements between the company and the holding company, Facebook Ireland Holdings.

In 1986, Geoffrey Bowers, then a New York attorney, filed a complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights, charging that he had been fired from his job at the Manhattan branch of Baker McKenzie law firm after AIDS-related lesions appeared on his face. The firm maintained that he was fired purely for his performance.[57] Two months after testifying at a hearing on the complaint, he died at age 33. The case was resolved in his favor in late December, when Baker McKenzie was ordered to pay $500,000 to Bowers' estate. It was one of the first AIDS discrimination cases to go to a public hearing. Baker McKenzie appealed but subsequently withdrew the appeal after they negotiated a confidential settlement in 1995 with Bowers' family forbidding parties from ever discussing the case or the terms of the agreement. These events were one inspiration for the film Philadelphia, starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington (the script of which was derived from numerous sources).[58] The film's credits include the following message: "This motion picture was inspired in part by Geoffrey Bowers’ AIDS discrimination lawsuit, the courage and love of the Angius family and the struggles of the many others who, along with their loved ones, have experienced discrimination because of AIDS."

In 1994, in a seminal case, a legal secretary, Rena Weeks, successfully sued the law firm for sexual harassment.[59] The trial court ordered the law firm to pay $6.9 million in punitive damages, making it one of the largest damage awards in history for this type of action.[60] On May 4, 1998, the California Court of Appeal for the First District upheld the trial court's judgment in full, and the Supreme Court of California denied review.[61] A subsequent dispute among Weeks' victorious attorneys as to the division of fees among them (she had signed a contingent fee agreement for 40% of her recovery) did reach the Supreme Court of California in 2002; the court held that the later-associated co-counsel could not recover the full amount he sought because Weeks' attorneys had not obtained her consent to an agreement to split fees among co-counsel from different firms as required by California court rules.[62] Martin R. Greenstein, the partner whose actions resulted in Weeks' successful lawsuit, was given a public reproval by the State Bar of California on March 26, 1998, and for obvious reasons, is no longer with Baker McKenzie (the Court of Appeal decision noted that he was terminated by the firm in August 1993).[63]

Baker McKenzie is organized as a Swiss Verein which allows regional profit pools and their related tax, accounting and partner compensation systems to remain separate while allowing strategy, branding, information technology and other core functions to be shared between the constituent partnerships.[64] Baker McKenzie is the only Verein that used to be a single partnership. All of the other Vereins were created by firms merging.[65]

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