Baker McKenzie is actively targeting a US merger, as the international firm seeks to ramp up its presence in the North American legal market.

In particular, Bakers is looking to grow its footprint in New York and Los Angeles by way of a tie-up with a domestic firm looking to go global.

Speaking to Legal Week, global chairman Paul Rawlinson (pictured) said: "We are looking for a merger partner in the US. We are seeing interest from strong US firms that have little international coverage that approach us to say 'we want to go global'. It's a question of when, not if."

He added: "It's always been in our strategy, but we are now seeing increased interest from domestic US firms. The sort of firms we're interested in talking to are those with a headcount bandwidth of anything from between 200 lawyers up to 1,000, which have a good industry focus match with us and an interesting footprint in New York."

The firm's immediate priority is to grow in markets including New York and Los Angeles with lateral hires. In the past two years, it has recruited 55 lawyers in North America, including 19 in New York.

The firm's North America chair Mike Wagner said: "We're pursuing all options from a client-driven mindset – when we looked at California it was clear that from conversations with clients that we needed significant strength in southern California, and we took a major step toward that with our Los Angeles opening this spring. It's a question of deepening an already strong team with greater bench strength, whether that's with groups of laterals or something more transformational."

Bakers relaunched an LA office earlier this year with the hire of five Hogan Lovells lawyers in California.

Other North American pickups at Bakers so far this year include former McDonald's general counsel Gloria Santona to its Chicago base, and former Dechert funds partner Karl Egbert to its New York office. The firm also promoted 19 new partners in North America at the start of the year.

The commitment to US growth comes after the firm announced a solid set of financial results, with revenue and profit per equity partner climbing to new heights in 2017-18.

Bakers' turnover in dollars jumped more than 8% year on year for the financial year ending 30 June, while profit per equity partner (PEP) climbed 13% to reach $1.44m (£1.1m). The hike represents the first time that global PEP has cleared £1m in sterling.

The global giant is the latest international player to target the world's largest legal market via a merger.

Magic circle firm Allen & Overy is in active discussions with West Coast litigation player O'Melveny & Myers, while earlier this year the UK's Berwin Leighton Paisner sealed a tie-up with Bryan Cave.