Leading global law firm, Baker McKenzie, has hired Richard Needham as a partner in the Firm’s Corporate Reorganizations team. Richard spent the majority of his career at Baker McKenzie before joining KPMG's Business Reorganizations Law team in 2021. 

Working across a range of sectors including industrials, technology, media and healthcare, Richard  advises clients on the planning and implementation of complex cross-border business reorganizations and carve-out/spin off M&A transactions. He works with clients from PE sponsors to private and public corporates on a broad range of reorganizations including legal entity rationalizations, post-acquisition integrations, holding company restructurings and other transformations. 

He has a particular focus on legal technology and project management and has extensive experience of developing client-focused solutions that successfully support and enable clients to effectively and efficiently achieve their goals and objectives. Richard was recognized as a Leading Individual for International Business Reorganizations in the most recent publication of the Legal 500.

Commenting on the hire, Baker McKenzie's London Managing Partner, Ed Poulton, said: "Richard re-joins us at a time when our Corporate team continues to go from strength to strength and his arrival will help us to further bolster our transactional team, continuing to provide our clients with expert advice on their global reorganizations." 

Baker McKenzie's Head of Corporate in London, David Allen, commented: "We are thrilled to be welcoming Richard back to the Firm and our ever-growing transactional practice. We have seen an increased appetite from clients to do complex cross-border carve-outs and reorganizations as a way to get their deals over the line. Richard's wealth of experience in this space will help us to build on the fantastic work already being done by our teams in London and across the Baker McKenzie network."

Richard joins Baker McKenzie on Monday 4 December and will be based in the Firm's London office. 

Baker McKenzie has attracted top talent across the globe to further strengthen its Transactional Practice. Richard follows the recent hires of Private Equity and M&A partner, Erika Lopez in Chicago, Private Equity partner, Hannah Luqmani in London, M&A partner, Theodore Heng in Singapore, Capital Markets and Finance partners Arturo Carrillo, Michael Fitzgerald and Joy Gallup in New York; M&A/Private Equity partner Michael Doumet in Paris; Capital Markets lawyer Sheng Chen in Hong Kong; Banking & Finance partners Kevin Whittam in New York, Anthony Kay in London and Holly Hart in Sydney; and Fintech partners Usman Sheikh and Michael Garellek in Toronto. 

Richard's hire also follows significant lateral recruitment into Baker McKenzie's London partnership, including, Natalie Ellerby from Linklaters (IP & Technology), Vinod Bange from Taylor Wessing (Intellectual Property, Technology and Data), Sarah Smith from Dechert LLP (Banking and Finance), Ash Tiwari and Rakesh Rathod from A&O  (Corporate), former UK Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham (Intellectual Property, Technology and Data), Andrew Hedges, from Norton Rose Fulbright (Corporate EMI), and Jim Charlton and Miles Humphrey (Tax) from Deloitte. 
Explore Our Newsroom