Milton Cheng, global chairman of Baker McKenzie/courtesy photo

Milton Cheng, the Baker McKenzie partner who made history last month when he became the law firm's first-ever global chairman based in Asia, credits the 70-year-old firm for its willingness to break with convention and elect a law firm leader from Asia.

"It's a big responsibility, but also a big tribute," Cheng told Law.com in an interview at his office in Hong Kong. "It takes a progressive organisation to recognise the growth and the growing importance of Asia to the point where they are prepared to have their global leader from the region."

But given Cheng's track record, Baker McKenzie, which ranked third on the Am Law 100 this year with revenue of $2.9 billion, isn't risking a thing. The Singapore native, who previously served as managing partner of Baker McKenzie's Hong Kong office as well as chief executive of offices in eight countries in the Asia Pacific, has led the firm on a path of growth and prosperity in Asia.

Last year, the firm's head count across the Asia Pacific region totaled 1,286 lawyers, making it the largest non-Asian firm in Law.com's Asia 50, a rank it has held since 2011, when head count data for firms in Asia was first collected. Compared with other global firms in the region, the individual offices in many Asian locales, including Hong Kong, China, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, are among the largest.

And in China, where several U.S.-based firms have been struggling in recent years, Cheng was at the helm when Baker McKenzie became the first global firm in 2015 to launch what has become a successful joint operation under the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, a programme that allows foreign firms to include Chinese law capability in a one-stop-shop offering. Since then, five other firms have launched similar operations.

Now, as he assumes his responsibilities as global chairman, Cheng has more plans for the firm in Asia, the U.S., and many of the other locations where Baker McKenzie operates around the world.

Asia growth

In China, Baker McKenzie will explore plans to further cooperate with its Shanghai Free Trade Zone partner firm, FenXun Partners, including potentially applying for offices in the southern Chinese technology hub of Shenzhen, an increasingly popular destination for firms in recent years. Other firms currently in Shenzhen include intellectual property specialists Brinks Gilson Lione and Fish & Richardson, as well as U.K. firm Simmons & Simmons and the Chinese member law firm of Big Four accounting firm EY.

But rather than focusing mostly on IP and tech, Cheng said the Shenzhen plan will likely have a broad practice that includes corporate, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, health care, technology, real estate, and intellectual property. Being in Shenzhen is part of Cheng's plan to capture work from the Greater Bay Area, a Chinese government-led economic project to integrate nine cities in Guangdong, a province in southern China, with Hong Kong and Macau. According to HSBC estimates, the economy of the Greater Bay Area region is expected to nearly double to $2.8 trillion by 2025.

While taking advantage of China's state-led economic programmes can help Baker McKenzie grow, the firm cannot ignore the ongoing U.S.-China trade war, Cheng said. And he wants to ensure that the conflict does not impede the progress the firm has made in the region.

"The trade war, for us, is both a challenge and opportunity," he said.

While transactional volume may be volatile, Baker McKenzie can leverage its broad practice platform so other areas can provide balance. When trade flows change, firms with local expertise in compliance and regulations, such as Baker McKenzie, become even more important, he explained. And with the firm's vast network of offices around the world—it has more than 5,000 lawyers globally—it is able to capture work from any redirection of trade, he added.

Cheng oversees 77 offices in 46 countries globally. Only Dentons has more offices, although more than half of its lawyers are based in China.

Growth in the U.S.

Outside of Asia, Cheng said Baker McKenzie will continue to expand in New York and other major U.S. cities. About 750 lawyers, or 15% of the firm's global lawyer head count, are located across the U.S., in offices in Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Palo Alto, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Cheng cites several recent hires, including three partners brought onboard last month from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in New York, Washington, D.C., and Chicago to launch a financial regulation and enforcement group, and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom's former Palo Alto corporate and M&A practice head, hired in August, as examples of the firm's U.S. ambitions.

Building up in the U.S. by way of a merger with a domestic firm was a priority for Cheng's predecessor, Paul Rawlinson, who passed away suddenly in April. Baker McKenzie is still looking at potential merger candidates in the U.S., as well as in various parts of the world, but no potential mergers are far enough along to discuss publicly, Cheng said.

While Cheng will be kept busy with external changes that involve making more lateral hires and expanding and launching offices, he is also looking to make internal changes at the firm. His priority: to get Baker McKenzie's partners to work more as a global team.

Integration

As part of that effort, he intends to raise the performance level at the firm's offices around the world to the same high standard. Cheng, a Baker McKenzie lifer who joined in 1990 and has practised in London, Singapore, and Hong Kong, is looking to make sure the firm's partners are consistently well trained globally.

In addition, Cheng said he plans to adjust rates in markets where Baker McKenzie has been operating like a local firm, to bring them more in line with the global firm's standard.

"I don't believe that local means cheaper," Cheng said.

Cheng will also continue efforts begun by Rawlinson to financially integrate the firm's global offices. Baker McKenzie is structured as a Swiss verein and is not financially integrated globally. According to sibling publication The American Lawyer, the firm rolled out a programme in 2018 that allows 16 offices in the U.K., Europe, the Middle East and Africa to share profits. Dubbed the EMEA+ network, it comprises about 2,000 people, including 275 partners.

Cheng said he would try to combine financials wherever possible, subject to local regulations.

"If you are incentivised to develop a global client, then you are indifferent to whether you get the work in Hong Kong or get the work in Spain," he said.

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