- Ben Allgrove, Partner and Chief Innovation Officer, was also recognized as one of the 20 most innovative lawyers of the last two decades.
- The Firm was ranked 10th overall, as the FT celebrates 20 Years of its Innovative Lawyers program.
Baker McKenzie has been recognized as one of the top 20 most innovative global law firms of the last 20 years by The Financial Times, as the publication celebrates 20 years of the FT Innovative Lawyers. Partner and Chief Innovation Officer Ben Allgrove was also recognized as one of the 20 most innovative lawyers of the past two decades, in the ‘intrapreneurs’ category. This was announced at the FT’s Innovative Lawyers global summit on 24 June at The Peninsula Hotel in London.
Baker McKenzie was ranked 10th overall in the list of 20 Most Innovative Law Firms. The Firm has a long history of advising pioneering companies on developing, creating and deploying technology to unlock untapped value for clients, shareholders and employees. This recognition follows in a proud tradition, with Baker McKenzie’s founder, Russell Baker, being named in 2013 by the American Lawyer as one of the top 50 legal innovators for pioneering ideas which would set the model for the future of global law firms.
Baker McKenzie’s formal innovation program, "Reinvent," seeks to embed innovation into every aspect of the Firm’s business and brings together change initiatives and technology to deliver quality, speed, accuracy, flexibility and efficiency gains to clients. Highlights include:
- Being pioneers in the use of service centers with the launch of its Manila hub in 2000, followed by centers in Belfast (2014), Tampa (2018) and Buenos Aires (2019).
- Revolutionizing how IP is managed by large global brand owners, with the launch of the Firm’s technology driven global managed IP service in 2007, which is now driven by its next generation 360IP Solution launched in 2024.
- Being front runners in the industry to recognize the potential of AI to drive new value for clients and disrupt business models. Baker McKenzie wrote its first AI strategy in 2017 and launched a specialist applied AI team, BakerML, to catalyze AI use cases with its clients.
- Being early adopters of legal technology to improve the Firm’s service delivery, including contract automation (2015), technology assisted review at global scale (2016) and the largest deployment of Copilot in the legal industry to date (2024). Baker McKenzie is now using AI to augment legal services for some of its biggest clients in multiple practice areas.
Ben Allgrove was previously named as a ‘Change-maker’ at the FT’s 2021 Innovative Lawyers Europe Awards. A technology partner in Baker McKenzie's London team, he is a much sought-after industry specialist, with a particular focus on AI, digital media and intermediary platforms. He was the lead author of the Firm’s first AI strategy in 2017 and appointed as its first Chief Innovation Officer in 2022. Ben was recognized among the top 20 most impactful intrapreneurs from the past 20 years of the FT Innovative Lawyers program, alongside fellow lawyers, legal operations and business professionals who have brought their entrepreneurial talent to drive change within their organizations and the wider legal industry. He is listed among a group of individuals who have changed how law firms and legal teams operate, create new business models, and have been catalysts for wider change across the industry.
In recent years, the FT has recognized Baker McKenzie as the Innovative Firm of the Year for Europe (2022) and for having the best Responsible Business Initiative as part of its innovation program for its Fighting Domestic Violence project (2022) , Jannan Crozier as Innovative Practitioner (2022), and Danielle Benecke as a Change Maker (2023). In addition, the Firm won the Best use of AI at the recent Legalweek Leaders in Tech Awards in the US for its use of AI to augment data breach services.