Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

Looking to expand its corporate practice on both sides of the Atlantic and in California, Baker Botts has relocated its corporate chair, Mike Bengtson, from Austin, Texas, to New York.

Bengtson, a leader in the Texas-based firm's corporate group since early 2017 and chair of the department since February, is aiming for growth not just in his new base, but also in London and the Bay Area.

“Energy and technology are the two things we do really well,” he said. “That's the sweet spot in terms of how we want to add scale in this practice.”

Mike Bengtson.

Bengtson said the firm was specifically targeting expertise in M&A, private equity, capital markets and emerging companies.

His own M&A practice is focused on midstream energy transactions. In the last two-and-a-half years, he said, he's handled 35 deals totaling $15 billion.

Many of those transactions involved private equity, and the firm decided that it could distinguish itself from its peers by moving Bengtson to New York.

“We thought I might be a unique differentiator, since most of that expertise is in Texas,” he said.

But Bengtson will also be using his presence in New York to grow the office, and he is also spending four to five weeks a year in London coordinating expansion efforts there with partner-in-charge Mark Rowley. 

In New York, according to Bengtson, the firm currently has roughly 90 attorneys, with a little over one-third of them on the corporate side. But he said that's not enough.

“We need to be 150 in New York to be the right size,” he said.

The firm currently occupies two floors in its Rockefeller Center office, but it's in the process of outfitting a third floor there.

“We are committed to the expenditure of building bricks and mortar and providing room for that kind of growth,” Bengtson said.

Of the firm's seven international offices, 40-attorney London is “the spot that we're targeting from a scale standpoint,” he added. 

He and Rowley are aggressively looking for transactional lawyers there, particularly in energy and technology. The firm recently hired energy partner Lewis Jones from Morgan Lewis & Bockius, and it is moving closer to another potential acquisition.

Baker Botts is also keyed in on the Bay Area, having opened an office in Palo Alto, California, in 2008 and San Francisco in 2016. What started with a focus on intellectual property has branched out to include corporate work, litigation and an environmental practice.

Right now the firm has roughly 50 lawyers between the two Bay Area offices, but Bengtson would like to grow to 80 in each. Still, he said he's proud of the existing growth in a region that's seen a number of new entrants.

“We consider it a real success story,” he said. 

Meanwhile, Baker Botts is also protecting its flank in Texas, where it was founded in Houston in 1840.

“Our traditional markets in Texas have been under attack by new market entrants. A lot of firms have found it attractive to be in Houston, Dallas and Austin,” Bengtson said. “The challenge is retaining clients, our talent base and our brand in those markets. While trying to grow, you have a battle on two fronts.”