Baker McKenzie is to focus on major industrial clients as part of a refreshed 2020 strategy that will see the firm ramp up transactional headcount in New York, London and China.

Recently elected chairman Paul Rawlinson has been busy setting out the firm's new strategy to its global partnership, with hundreds of European partners gathering at the Grosvenor in London to hear his pitch last week, before moving on Bangkok to deliver the same message to the Asian partnership this week.

Key to the firm's long-term success, according to Rawlinson – who replaced Eduardo Leite as global chair in October – will be a renewed focus on core sectors. It has now added major industrials to a focus list that already included: financial institutions; energy, mining & infrastructure (EMI); IT and communications; pharma and healthcare; and, since late last year, consumer goods and retail.

As part of these industry efforts comes a push to bring together teams of lawyers to work more closely with clients in each chosen sector. The goal is ultimately to create industry-specific packages that can be repurposed for other clients.

Rawlinson explains: "We might find that healthcare clients need some M&A, supply chain stuff etc and we'll then pull together teams of multi-practice lawyers for that work, with the intention of trying to build a service that's then repeatable for other clients in that sector. We're trying to re-engineer the way we deliver services. The practice group approach is still powerful, but it isn't sufficient on its own."

For the firm's lawyers, it will mean working across different practice groups while building their skills in particular areas.

Aiding these efforts will be the firm's recently signed deal with consultants Peer Insight, which will see the firm working with the consultancy on a number of six-week projects across various teams, with the intention of coming up with some new solutions.

Says Rawlinson: "Underpinning everything will be innovation – it's about how we create innovative service delivery. We're working with Peer Insight to re-engineer our service lines and create new ones to become more efficient, as well as using Belfast and Manila to be really efficient.

The practice group approach is still powerful, but it isn't sufficient on its own

"The theory is that we will incubate between six and 10 ideas across various practices. The intention is that once the thinking gets to a certain point, you can create a new service line and invest in it with new technology etc – it isn't dissimilar to what the Big Four are doing, but I think it's quite unique in big law firms."

Part and parcel of this process will be a review of the firm's client base to ensure it works for both today and tomorrow.

"There are still important clients in the US and Europe but emerging market clients are also very important, and we have to be careful not to miss opportunities there," comments Rawlinson. He explains that the firm will be targeting tech and healthcare clients in China; EMI and tech clients in Latin America; and EMI and consumer in Africa and the Middle East.

Every bit as important to Bakers' future success as the client sector focus will be transactional growth. Rawlinson wants to see the firm double in size in New York by 2020 and add between 20 and 30 partners in London, as well as bulk up in mainland China.

He says: "At the moment we're well balanced, but we need more bench strength in London to make sure we can service the biggest clients as we want to win market share and grow. In China we want to grow for inbound and outbound investment work, but haven't finalised the numbers yet. We've already said we want to double in New York to gain critical mass."

The firm currently has 95 partners and nearly 400 lawyers in London, and 54 partners and 116 lawyers in New York.

On the softer side, Bakers is also focusing on diversity and inclusion as part of a push to recruit people who fit in with the firm's sector focus.

"We have various projects to help with this, from agile working to sponsorship," says Rawlinson. "The sponsorship programme is new, and that's about making sure the next generation get the right support and mentoring to give them the best opportunities."

As Rawlinson concludes, it's all about "looking at how we're doing as a firm and what's happening in the market".