Baker + McKenzie Widens Branding Lead on Competitors
Baker McKenzie has been named number one legal brand in the Asia Pacific region for the third consecutive year, according to the Acritas Asia Pacific Brand Index 2019.
The Firm has also grown their lead at the top of the table significantly. Awareness and favourability growth in Hong Kong / China has helped to drive this increased lead, although Baker McKenzie has generated favourability amongst buyers in all of the key Asian Pacific markets where the survey was run.
Also of note was Baker McKenzie’s strength in the high value transactional space, where the Firm also moved to lead position.
Ai Ai Wong, Chair, Asia Pacific, Baker McKenzie, said:
“In addition to industry leading legal expertise, the legal services buyer of today expects commerciality, responsiveness, an ability to meet key procurement requirements, and overall a partner that helps to advance their business interests and capture key opportunities when they arise. It is gratifying to see our strength in high value work, particularly transactional work, being recognised so clearly this year; on average we lead and close three major transactions somewhere in the world every day, and we are using that global expertise to help leading companies grow and succeed across the region’s diverse and fast changing markets.”
According to Acritas, expertise is still setting firms apart from their rivals, with clients favouring quality of advice and specialist knowledge. Speed, responsiveness and partner accessibility are also becoming increasingly important in the region for legal buyers.
“The Asia Pacific region is exciting and growing. As organisations continue to focus on international growth, clients are looking for quality, specialist knowledge and client focus as they navigate the opportunities across the region’s diverse markets.” explains David Johnson, Account Director at Acritas.
Legal departments are spending more of their budget on international work in the Asia Pacific region overall, much of focused on work between various Asia Pacific jurisdictions, for example between Japan and Australia. The demand for cross border support is regularly a driver of favourability, and breadth of support remains key to clients in the region, with spend also set to increase in comparison to clients in other global legal markets.
Methodology
The Acritas Asia Pacific Law Firm Brand Index 2019 is compiled from the unprompted responses of 489 senior general counsel in Asia Pacific organisations with annual revenues over $50m USD who, as part of Sharplegal research, were asked about their awareness of and favourability towards law firms; their consideration of firms for top-level litigation and major M&A; multi-jurisdictional litigation and deals; as well as their use of firms for high value work. Interviews were conducted across all industry sectors in 2018 and up until end of May 2019.
A further 413 senior in-house counsel from ‘elite’ organisations were asked which firms they used for their legal needs in any of seven key jurisdictions within Asia Pacific, outside of the country they were based in.
