Baker & McKenzie

Baker & McKenzie
Headquarters Chicago[1]
No. of offices 77 [2]
No. of attorneys > 4,350[3]
No. of employees > 11,500
Major practice areas Corporate law
Key people Eduardo C. Leite
(Chairman of the Executive Committee)
Revenue US$2.43 billion (FY 15)[2]
Company type Swiss Verein
Website
www.bakermckenzie.com

Baker & McKenzie, founded in 1949 is a multinational law firm headquartered in Chicago. As of August 2015 it is ranked as the largest international law firm in the world,[4] with 11,500 employees including 4,365 lawyers on a full-time equivalent basis in 77 offices across 47 countries.[2] It is ranked as a top three law firm in the world in terms of revenue with US$2.43 billion in annual revenue in FY2014-2015.[5]

Baker & McKenzie is ranked as one of the top five international law firms in the majority of countries where it has an established practice. Clients prize Baker & McKenzie for its breadth of access to markets, as it can individually guide cross-border transactions without using external local counsel. In 2014, Baker & McKenzie opened offices in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Brisbane, Australia; and Yangon, Myanmar as well as a second Global Services Center in Belfast,[6] Northern Ireland. In April 2015 Baker & McKenzie announced it was the first international law firm to enter into a Joint Operation in the China (Shanghai) Free Trade Zone with the PRC law firm FenXun Partners.[7]

Its current chairman is Eduardo C. Leite, former managing partner of its four Brazil offices. Mr. Leite has recently served as a Co-Chair of the 2015 World Economic Forum on Latin America, Riviera Maya, Mexico which ran from May 6 to May 8.[8] Mr. Leite became the first member of a law firm to be appointed to the US-Brazil CEO Forum in 2013 and in September 2015 U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced him as the new chair of the US section of this forum, leading efforts in strengthening commercial ties between the two countries.[9]

History

Origins and international growth

Co-founding partner Russell Baker, born in Wisconsin and raised in New Mexico, opened his early practice Baker & Simpson in Chicago in 1925 upon his 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. McKenzie took charge of the litigation practice, and Baker built an international practice. Through the 1950s, the firm's client roster expanded.

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. Rather than practicing U.S. law abroad, Baker & McKenzie trained local lawyers, often bringing them to the 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 after the Iron Curtain fell.[10] In California, the firm merged with MacDonald, Halsted, and Laybourne to start offices in Los Angeles and San Diego. By 1990 the firm operated 49 offices on six continents, employing around 1500 attorneys generating $400 million in revenues.

1999 to present

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 Chairman of the Global Executive Committee, the first woman to lead Baker & McKenzie; she was chairperson for five years. In 2004, Forbes listed Lagarde as No. 76 in its list of “Most Powerful Women in the World."[11] 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.[12]

In 2001 the firm employed 3000 attorneys and had $1 billion in revenues.[13] A structure largely unique to large multinational law firms, now that Deloitte and KPMG have changed their internal organisation, the Swiss Verein, was pioneered by Baker & McKenzie in 2004, in which multiple national or regional partnerships form an association in which they share branding, administrative functions and various operating costs, but maintain separate revenue pools and often separate partner compensation structures.[14] . In 2005, the firm received a large boost when some 70 partners and other legal staff from the New York office of the disbanding international firm Coudert Brothers joined Baker & McKenzie.

In October 2006, Unilever chose the firm to manage its global trademark portfolio, the largest in the world with over 160,000 registrations. It was the first time a multinational company outsourced its trademark management to a law firm on such a large scale.[15] In September 2007, BTI Consulting rated Baker & McKenzie as one of the world's top 10 transaction law firms in its recent survey on corporate transactions, which was reported by National Law Journal.[16] 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 big law.[17]

Since 2009, Baker & McKenzie has opened offices in locations including Abu Dhabi,[18] Luxembourg,[19] Turkey,[20] Johannesburg, South Africa,[21] Morocco,[22] Peru,[23] South Korea,[24] and Dubai.[25]

Transactional focus

Multi-jurisdictional transactions Baker & McKenzie has advised on in recent years include:

Notable cases tried

Baker & McKenzie represented five leading luxury goods and fashion brands in 2005 in an action against the landlord of the infamous Silk Market Shopping mall where counterfeit goods were sold.[33] The Intermediate and Higher People’s Courts both confirmed that the landlord was jointly and severally liable for failing to stop infringements by vendors after being notified of them, making this the first time a landlord is held responsible for the illegal activities of their tenants in the judicial history of China.[34] This case was also recognized as a “Top Ten” case by the Beijing Higher People’s Court.[34]

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.[35] 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.[36]

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.[37][38]

Baker & McKenzie is representing Microsoft in Microsoft Corporation v. Internal Revenue Service [39]

Awards and rankings

In the news

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.[54] 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).[55] 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.[56] 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.[57] 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.[58] 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.[59] 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).[60]

In June 2005, a senior associate in the firm's London office, Richard Phillips, drew a considerable amount of media attention after it was revealed that the highly paid lawyer had been making a determined effort to have a £4 dry cleaning bill paid by a secretary who had accidentally splashed tomato ketchup on his trousers. In an open email, the secretary explained that she had been slow in attending to the matter due to the recent death and funeral of her mother. Before long, the story had been widely circulated throughout the City of London and beyond.[61]

Baker & McKenzie is one of the first law firms to have adopted a functional outsourcing operation, which is now being emulated by other firms.[62] Its offshore operations in Manila, which include marketing, business research, and IT and computer maintenance support, was profiled in January 2006 by BusinessWeek magazine.[63]

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" [64] 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.[65]

In May 2012, the firm assisted the Rijksmuseum to acquire 150 photographs that expanded its international photography collection, with the addition of technological and aesthetic developments in 20th Century photography, from an art form to a force in modern journalism. It includes works by prominent photographers such as László Moholy-Nagy, Bill Brandt, Robert Capa and Helen Levitt.[66]

Baker & McKenzie became the first international firm to establish a base in Peru via its tie-up with Peruvian law firm Estudio Echecopar in 2012.[67]

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.[68]

In February 2013, Baker & McKenzie and the Economist Corporate Network launched a report, titled Riding the ASEAN elephant: How business is responding to an unusual animal? , which details growth opportunities in the region based on the company strategies of the results of a poll of senior executives from 147 multinational companies operating in ASEAN. The report goes into the plan for an ASEAN Economic Community by 2015, which includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.[69]

In January 2014, Baker & McKenzie was second in the legal sector and 19th overall in Stonewall’s top 100 most gay-friendly employers.[70]

George M. Clark, Daniel A. Rosen and James M. O’Brien of Baker & McKenzie are representing Microsoft in Microsoft v. Internal Revenue Service.[71]

Organization

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.[72] Baker & McKenzie is the only Verein that used to be a single partnership. All of the other Vereins were created by firms merging.[73]

Practice areas

Baker & McKenzie practices in the following areas of law:

References

  1. ↑ "Baker & Mckenzie, L.L.P.". Lawyer.com. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 "Firm Facts". Baker & McKenzie. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  3. ↑ "Firm Profile". Baker & McKenzie. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  4. ↑ Friedman, Gabe (24 August 2015). "Baker & McKenzie Posts Lower Revenue, Makes Investments". Bloomberg BNA. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  5. ↑ http://www.bakermckenzie.com/news/Baker--McKenzie-announces-global-revenues-of-243-billion-08-24-2015/
  6. ↑ http://www.investni.com/news/world-s-largest-law-firm-baker---mckenzie-announces-256-jobs-in-belfast.html
  7. ↑ Tan, Andrea (April 15, 2015). "Baker & McKenzie, FenXun Win Approval for Shanghai Law Venture". Bloomberg.
  8. ↑ http://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-latin-america-2015
  9. ↑ https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2015/09/us-commerce-secretary-penny-pritzker-appoints-new-chair-us-brazil-ceo
  10. ↑ "From small beginnings to global giant". Chambers Student Guide 2011. In 1989 it became one of the first international law firms in Moscow. The Soviet government retained the firm to handle what was the largest privatisation in the nation’s history – Volga Automobile Associated Works.
  11. ↑ MacDonald, Elizabeth (August 20, 2004). "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women". Forbes. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  12. ↑ "Press Release: IMF Executive Board Selects Christine Lagarde as Managing Director". International Monetary Fund. June 28, 2011. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  13. ↑ "Firm History". Baker & McKenzie. 2014. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  14. ↑ Johnson, Chris (7 March 2013). "Vereins: The new structure for global firms". The American Lawyer. Retrieved 1 August 2013.
  15. ↑ "Managing the world’s largest trademark portfolio". Baker & McKenzie. 2014. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  16. ↑ Qualters, Sheri (September 13, 2007). "Skadden tops list of corporate counsel's go-to firms". Law.com. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  17. ↑ "The Master Strategists". The American Lawyer. August 13, 2013. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  18. ↑ "Baker & McKenzie to open in Abu Dhabi". The Lawyer. October 30, 2008. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  19. ↑ "Baker & McKenzie Opens New Office in Luxembourg". Baker & McKenzie. October 1, 2010. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  20. ↑ Kriegler, Yun (October 27, 2011). "Baker & McKenzie signs up to exclusive Turkish alliance with Esin". The Lawyer. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  21. ↑ Burton, Lucy (May 29, 2012). "Baker & McKenzie launches Johannesburg base with Dewey team". The Lawyer. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  22. ↑ "Bakers follows UK firms into Morocco with Casablanca launch". Legalweek. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  23. ↑ Amon, Elizabeth (8 May 2013). "Shearman Kuwait Deal, Baker & McKenzie: Business of Law". Bloomberg.
  24. ↑ Sarfo, Ama (May 7, 2013). "Baker & McKenzie Joins Foreign Firm Boom In S. Korea". Law360. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  25. ↑ Huddleston Jr., Tom (April 18, 2013). "Baker & McKenzie Expands Mideast Presence with Addition of 40-Lawyer Firm in UAE". The American Lawyer. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  26. ↑ http://www.conventuslaw.com/baker-mckenzie-advises-the-dai-ichi-life-insurance-company-on-its-acquisition-of-protective-life-corporation/
  27. ↑ http://www.legalbusiness.co.uk/index.php/lb-blog-view/2687-baker-mckenzie-takes-lead-role-on-650m-gherkin-receivership
  28. ↑ http://www.legalweek.com/legal-week/news/2343589/bakers-on-hand-as-alliance-boots-expands-into-latin-america
  29. ↑ http://www.law360.com/articles/558304/blackstone-nabs-8-7b-mortgage-portfolio-after-record-q2
  30. ↑ http://www.lngworldnews.com/baker-mckenzie-advises-yamal-development-on-major-gas-acquisition/
  31. ↑ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4f08a50a-2084-11e4-b8f4-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3SIZz2dhw
  32. ↑ http://www.iflr.com/Article/3145716/BTA-Bank-restructuring.html
  33. ↑ Goldkorn, Jeremy (January 30, 2007). "Silk Street divides and conquers foreign brands". danwei.org. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  34. 1 2 "LawFuel". The Law News Network. Archived from the original on March 24, 2010.
  35. ↑ "Baker McKenzie". COPAA. Archived from the original on June 8, 2008.
  36. ↑ "Pro Bono Supreme Court". Baker & McKenzie. Archived from the original on June 8, 2008.
  37. ↑ Letzing, John (December 10, 2009). "Symantec wins $545 million opinion in tax case". MarketWatch. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  38. ↑ "U.S. Tax Court Rules in Favor of Symantec". Symantec. December 14, 2009. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  39. ↑ http://www.law360.com/cases/54735c6748511a1102000001
  40. ↑ "Global Comparison Table - Your Guide to the World’s Best Lawyers". Chambers & Partners. 2014. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  41. ↑ http://www.bakermckenzie.com/news/ChambersNamesBakerMcKenzieLatinAmericaLawFirmoftheYear2014/
  42. ↑ https://www.worldcityweb.com/news/south-florida-business-news/13179-baker-mckenzie-wins-award-as-latin-america-law-firm-for-2014
  43. ↑ "Law Firm of the Year Awards". Best Law Firms. 2014. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  44. ↑ "Chambers Global Awards for Excellence 2014 - Your Guide to the World’s Best Lawyers". Chambers & Partners. 2014. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  45. ↑ "GCR - Global Competition Review". Global Competition Review. 2014. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  46. ↑ Gannagé-Stewart, Hannah (March 20, 2014). "Stonewall unveils top 20 LGB friendly firms". The Lawyer. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  47. ↑ O'Connell, Dominic (2014). "100 Best Companies". The Sunday Times. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  48. ↑ "MPF Awards for Management Excellence". Managing Partners' Forum. 2014. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  49. ↑ "企業が選ぶ弁護士ランキング　企業法務１位は中村氏". Nihon Keizai Shimbun. December 16, 2013. Retrieved December 16, 2013.
  50. ↑ "Annual Legal Study Ranks Top 25 Law Firms in the United States". FTI Consulting. 2014. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  51. ↑ "Top Diversity Rankings for Baker & McKenzie for 8th Consecutive Year". Baker & McKenzie. May 1, 2012. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  52. 1 2 "Asia Women in Business Law Awards 2013: Winners announced". International Financial Law Review. November 20, 2013. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  53. ↑ "Leading Lights" (PDF). bakerworld.com.
  54. ↑ Lawyer With AIDS Charges Job Discrimination
  55. ↑ Philadelphia' Screenplay Suit To Reach Court
  56. ↑ The Baker & McKenzie Sexual Discrimination Case, Georgia Trial Lawyers Association.
  57. ↑ Sexual Harassment Laws: How a Six Million Dollar Man Became a Six Million Dollar Liability, The Payroll Factory. Archived February 5, 2005, at the Wayback Machine.
  58. ↑ Weeks v. Baker & McKenzie, 63 Cal. App. 4th 1128 (1998).
  59. ↑ Chambers v. Kay, 29 Cal. 4th 142 (2002).
  60. ↑ See State Bar of California public record for Martin Richard Greenstein, State Bar Number 106789.
  61. ↑ Ketchup Trousers, Snopes.com. Also in 2005 Heidi Gritt was employed.
  62. ↑ , The Guardian
  63. ↑ Online Extra: The Cost-Killer in Manila, Businessweek.com
  64. ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/law/2012/jul/27/twitter-joke-trial-high-court
  65. ↑ http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-19009344
  66. ↑ http://artdaily.com/news/43152/Rijksmuseum-Exhibits-Recently-Acquired-Masterpieces-of-20th-Century-Photography#.U0ycXvmSyCY
  67. ↑ http://www.thelawyer.com/baker-and-mckenzie-enters-peru-via-tie-up-with-local-firm-estudio-echecopar/1014767.article
  68. ↑ http://business.financialpost.com/2012/10/23/baker-mckenzie-launches-cross-border-listings-app-for-apple-devices/
  69. ↑ http://ftp01.economist.com.hk/ECN_papers/ridingASEAN.pdf
  70. ↑ http://www.thelawyer.com/analysis/the-lawyer-management/management-news/law-firms-make-up-10-per-cent-of-stonewall-top-100/3014865.article
  71. ↑ http://www.law360.com/articles/599013/microsoft-sues-irs-to-release-docs-in-transfer-pricing-fight
  72. ↑ http://www.edge.ai/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/enterswissverein_2012.pdf
  73. ↑ https://bol.bna.com/baker-mckenzie-eyes-africa-as-next-great-expansion-opportunity/

External links

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