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Unique selling points

  • Expansive, full-service offering, covering everything from private equity, banking, antitrust and litigation, to cybersecurity, environment, trade, tax and restructuring.
  • Chambers and Partners have awarded the firm Band 1 rankings for the following departments: Employment: Employer, Employment: Employer: Industrial Relations, Information Technology & Outsourcing, Commercial Contracts, Media & Entertainment: Games, Interactive Entertainment & Social Media, Sanctions, Tax: Contentious and Telecommunications. 
  • Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, the firm has a particularly expansive international network of 77 offices in 46 countries, with locations in cities such as Barcelona, Amsterdam, and Abu Dhabi.
  • Corporate Social Responsibility and pro bono initiatives are at the core of the firm’s culture, the firm has several initiatives including Real Rights, Legal Atlas for Street Children and Fighting Domestic Violence Tool.
  • Strong commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion through initiatives such as sponsoring the Black British Business Awards, supporting GiveOut and its multiple employee networks. 
  • Key focus on utilising technology to provide flexible and innovative legal services, with initiatives including SparkBeyond, being a founding partner of the World Economic Forum’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and launching the Reinvent Fellows program.
  • Notable clients include Emerson Electric, Walgreen Boots, Oceans Finance Company, Dropbox, Pinterest, Fujitsu, Warner Bros and Unilever. 

We cover these selling points in more detail below, alongside other relevant firm facts and characteristics.

Practice areas / services

Baker McKenzie is a full-service law firm, with a broad range of practice areas including:

  • Antitrust & Competition 
  • Artificial Intelligence 
  • Banking & Finance 
  • Capital Markets
  • Cybersecurity & Data Privacy 
  • Data & Technology 
  • Dispute Resolution 
  • Employment & Compensation 
  • Environment & Climate Change 
  • Intellectual Property 
  • International Commercial & Trade 
  • Investigations, Compliance & Ethics
  • Investment Funds 
  • Mergers & Acquisitions 
  • Private Equity 
  • Projects 
  • Real Estate 
  • Restructuring & Insolvency 
  • Tax 

Chambers and Partners, a leading analyst of the legal market, has awarded Baker McKenzie its highest ‘Band 1’ ranking for the following departments: Employment: Employer, Employment: Employer: Industrial Relations, Information Technology & Outsourcing, Commercial Contracts, Media & Entertainment: Games, Interactive Entertainment & Social Media, Sanctions, Tax: Contentious and Telecommunications.  See here for more information

Key sectors / industries

Baker McKenzie services a broad range of industries, with some of its highest-value clients operating in the following sectors:

In addition, Baker McKenzie services the following industries: Energy & Infrastructure, Healthcare & Life Sciences and Industrials, Manufacturing & Transportation.  

Work

Baker McKenzie consistently advises on complex high-profile legal matters, including, for example:

  • Walgreen Boots: The firm worked with Walgreen Boots on a £4.8 billion buy-in transaction of Boots Pension Scheme, meaning that all 53,000 of the Scheme’s members’ benefits will be insured with Legal & General. 
  • Oceans Finance Company: Baker Mckenzie’s Banking and Finance team represented Oceans Finance Company in one of the largest debt-for-nature transactions ever, which was a multi-jurisdictional exchange of $800 million in debt. 
  • Unilever: The firm advised Unilever on the sale of Suave in North America to private equity firm Yellow Wood Partners. The Suave beauty and personal care brand includes hair care, skin care, skin cleansing and deodorant products.

Offices / global footprint / expansion

Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois

Offices: Baker McKenzie has a total of 77 offices in 46 different counties, with locations including: Barcelona, Amsterdam, and Abu Dhabi. 

Insights, internships and other opportunities

Baker McKenzie offers a number of opportunities for individuals wishing to gain experience in the legal industry and learn more about life at the firm. Opportunities for interested applicants include: several Open Days held throughout the year, which offer the chance to participate in interactive workshops and chat with lawyers at the firm; the First Year Insight Scheme, which lasts two days and entails structured sessions designed to develop commercial awareness and provide insights into what working for the firm is like; and vacations schemes held in Spring and Summer, which are open to penultimate year students and beyond from any degree discipline. These can involve attending real client meetings, contributing to a pro bono project, and getting involved in a client pitch exercise.

Training contract

Baker McKenzie offers a four-seat training contract, with each seat lasting six months. With corporate work at the heart of the firm, trainees are expected to undertake one transactional seat, as well as a contentious seat. Beyond these two compulsory seats, trainees are given the opportunity to explore different areas of law according to their interests. The two-year programme begins with a two-week induction, which introduces trainees to work at the firm. After completing each seat, trainees can also expect of review of their progress, as well as feedback on their performance from a Trainee Partner. 

Secondments

Baker McKenzie offers its trainees the chance to apply for an international or client secondment. If successful, trainees will get to spend either three or six months at one of the firm’s offices abroad or clients. Previous locations for international secondments have included Brussels, Hong Kong, and New York, while client secondments have been spent at firms including BP and Google.

Technology and innovation

Baker McKenzie is committed to utilising technology to provide clients with flexible and innovative legal services, with related initiatives including:

  • SparkBeyond: the firm signed a three-year partnership with artificial intelligence leaders SparkBeyond to solve problems that have so far prevented true disruption of legal services by machine learning and artificial intelligence.
  • C4IR: Baker McKenzie if one of the founding partners and first law firm sponsors of the World Economic Forum’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR), which enables knowledge-sharing and collaboration.
  • Reinvent Fellows: the firm launched the Reinvent Fellows programme, established to target tangible service delivery improvements by addressing material client problems and changing how the firm works.
Corporate social responsibility

Baker McKenzie seeks to provide legal services to the “underserved and disadvantaged”, with examples of work that contributes towards its mission including: 

  • Real Rights: This project has been developed by the firm with the Global Initiative on Justice with Children to provide young people – especially young people of colour, minority and vulnerable populations – with specific guidance for interactions with law enforcement. 
  • Legal Atlas for Street Children: This is a project which used the legal research expertise of Baker McKenzie to collate together laws affecting street children so they can access that information. 
  • Fighting Domestic Violence Tool: The firm has developed a global comparative law tool which allows for rapid analysis of domestic violence legislation alongside conventions and between countries. 

Diversity and inclusion

Baker McKenzie believes that diversity makes its ‘global community stronger, more interesting and richer in thought’. As such, the firm has established a range of initiatives promoting diversity and inclusion, including:

  • Black British Business Awards: From the inception of the awards in 2014, the firm has sponsored the event which was itself founded by a Baker McKenzie alumnus. 
  • GiveOut: Baker McKenzie supports GiveOut, an international community foundation which funds LGBTQ+ activism around the world. It is led by a Baker McKenzie alumnus. 
  • Employee Networks: The firm has a number of employee networks including BakerCarers, BakerEthnicity, BakerLGBT+/Allies, BakerOpportunity, BakerWellbeing and BakerWomen. 
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