Our Diversity

In the North America offices of Baker & McKenzie, we know from experience the importance of maintaining a broad culture of diversity in a dynamic global organization. As one of the first international law firms, we are uniquely suited to recognize that organizations make better decisions when they bring together talented people with diverse backgrounds and multiple points of views. We believe this is an important step to understanding and responding to the rapidly changing needs of our clients.

We recognize the value of diversity and have a long history of living it. Our founder Russell Baker believed that local lawyers who were grounded in local law, customs and language were the best lawyers on which to build a global law firm. While many firms promote only their home-country lawyers, we have a tradition of growing and promoting international talent. We appointed our first partner outside the United States in 1957, in Venezuela. Today, our lawyers are citizens of more than 60 countries and speak more than 65 languages.

Current Projects
We strive to be an inclusive employer by establishing policies and practices that allow for active recruitment of a diverse workforce. To this end, our North America Diversity Oversight Committee has been charged with setting forth programs and initiatives aimed at broadening recruitment efforts of candidates with diverse backgrounds for the region. Specific projects include:

• Distribution of more than $1.4 million to US law schools for tuition grants to minority students since 1989
• Our summer internship program enriches both the Firm and participants by hosting college and law school minority students in a diverse workplace for a challenging legal experience
• Outreach to minority students through our participation in various minority job fairs and student organizations
• Diversity training to enforce the vision of a diverse workplace and to continue the commitment necessary to realize and maintain a diverse environment
• Many of our lawyers and staff work free of charge with organizations that seek to develop opportunities for minorities in the workplace

Diverse in Many Ways
Baker & McKenzie has long been considered a welcoming work environment for women. More than 1,200 of our lawyers are women, and more than 200 of them hold the title of partner. Many serve on the Firm’s governance committees, and others hold leadership positions in our operations. Some of our top administrators are women, and women lead our technology and public relations departments.

Consider:

• Our former chairman, Christine Lagarde, is now France’s minister for foreign trade.
• The Mexican publication Mujer Ejecutiva ranked us sixth in the category of "Top 20: Workplaces for Women." The Firm also ranked fifth in the magazine's survey in "Income of Female Executives" and 10th in "Total Number of Working Female Executives."
• Baker & McKenzie was named “Best Law Firm for Women” for 2007 by Working Mother magazine in its first-of-its-kind initiative honoring trailblazers in work-life balance. The Firm was selected for its high ranking in various categories, including flexibility, workforce profile, benefits and compensation, parental leave and related benefits and policies, and retention and advancement of women.

In North America, we have established a formal program to attract and develop minority lawyers.

• Our efforts were recognized by Multicultural Law magazine, which in 2006 ranked Baker & McKenzie first in the category of “Top 50 Law Firms for Associates.”
• We also ranked 12th overall among US law firms in Multicultural Law’s “Top 100 Law Firms for Diversity.”

The rankings are based on the diversity of our lawyers, our use of the Diversity Oversight Committee and mentor programs, and leadership support.

Welcoming Environment 
We have a global mindset and a welcoming culture. Vault, publisher of industry standard career guides, recently said that “by virtue of the way this global firm was built, one location at a time, there may be more office-to-office diversity in Baker & McKenzie than in any other firm.” Our goal is to foster an environment where individuals of diverse race, color, ethnicity, culture, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, religion, nationality, age, disability, and material and parental status may succeed professionally and may fully contribute to the goals of the Firm.

Contact us to learn more about what this means to work at Baker & McKenzie or to work with us.