The firm provided legal services to the growing Mexican American community in Chicago, which would set a foundation for its global reach.

[2] In 1949 Baker was joined by John McKenzie, a graduate from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, who helped further establish the international practice.

[5] In 2005, 70 partners, and other legal staff, from the New York office of disbanding international firm Coudert Brothers joined Baker McKenzie.

[7] In July 2013, co-founding partner Russell Baker was named one of American Lawyer's top 50 innovators for pioneering ideas and initiatives that changed the world of BigLaw.

In September 2022, after 40 years of existence in the UAE, Baker McKenzie announced to swiftly separate from its Emirati partner, Habib Al Mulla.

This led to a unanimous Supreme Court decision in June 2007 granting parents the right to proceed without counsel on behalf of children with disabilities.

[20] In December 2009, Baker McKenzie won a landmark tax case against the U.S. Internal Revenue Service for Symantec Corporation.

Symantec took the case to the U.S. Tax Court where Baker & McKenzie argued that the IRS position was arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable.

The team advising on his appeal was led by Preiskel & Co's David Allen Green, John Cooper QC of 25 Bedford Row, and Sarah Przybylska of 2 Hare Court.

The Baker McKenzie team, which acted on the case pro bono from 2010, included partners Harry Small, Tom Cassels and Ben Allgrove.

These events were one inspiration for the film Philadelphia, starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington (the script of which was derived from numerous sources).

[28] In 1994, in a seminal case, a legal secretary, Rena Weeks, successfully sued the law firm for sexual harassment.

[32] Martin R. Greenstein, the partner whose actions resulted in Weeks' successful lawsuit, was given a public reproval by the State Bar of California on March 26, 1998, and for obvious reasons, is no longer with Baker McKenzie (the Court of Appeal decision noted that he was terminated by the firm in August 1993).

[34] Baker McKenzie has boasted about helping to set up tax-free zones in the UAE, which critics say encourage illicit activity.