Baker & McKenzie International (Baker McKenzie) is a global law firm structured as a Swiss Verein which operates through a number of professional firms and constituent entities (the Member Firms) located throughout the world to provide legal and other client related professional services. The Member Firms are constituted and regulated in accordance with relevant local regulatory and legal requirements. The use of the name Baker McKenzie is for description purposes only and does not imply that the Member Firms are in a partnership or are part of a LLP. The responsibility for the provision of services to the client is defined in the terms of engagement between the Member Firm and the client.
In accordance with the common terminology used in professional services organizations, references to "partner" or "principal" means a person who is a partner, or principal or equivalent in a Member Firm, and reference to an "office" means an office of any such Member Firm.
The Baker McKenzie websites, being any website operated for or on behalf of Baker McKenzie or any Member Firm, are intended for information purposes only. Nothing in the Baker McKenzie websites is to be considered as creating an attorney-client relationship or indeed any contractual relationship or as rendering legal or professional advice for any specific matter. Readers are responsible for obtaining such advice from their own legal counsel. No client or reader should act or refrain from acting on the basis of any content on the Baker McKenzie website(s) without first obtaining matter specific legal and/or professional advice. Baker McKenzie and/or any Member Firm accept no responsibility for any loss or damage, howsoever incurred, which may result from accessing or reliance on content on the Baker McKenzie website(s), and disclaim, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, any or all liability with respect to acts or omissions made by clients or readers on the basis of content on the Baker McKenzie website(s). If you have any questions on the content on the Baker McKenzie website(s) please contact Niall McSorley, Deputy General Counsel.
The Baker McKenzie website(s) may contain links to external websites and external websites may link to Baker McKenzie website(s). Baker McKenzie and/or the Member Firms are not responsible for the content or operation of any such external sites and disclaims all liability, howsoever occurring, in respect of the content or operation of any such external websites.
Some of the content of the Baker McKenzie website(s) may constitute attorney advertising within the meaning of the applicable bar rules. As applicable, the following statement is made in accordance with those rules: ATTORNEY ADVERTISING. PRIOR RESULTS DO NOT GUARANTEE A SIMILAR OUTCOME. In addition to the legal notices above, please refer to the Regional Notices for additional information for Member Firms.
Anti-corruption and anti-bribery
Baker McKenzie is required to comply with a variety of anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws across many jurisdictions including in particular but without limitation the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the UK Bribery Act. The Firm, its lawyers, its employees and its clients as well as its suppliers, have various obligations under the anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws. We comply with these
obligations and advise our clients in relation to compliance with these obligations. As a Firm we have in place robust policies, training and procedures to ensure compliance with anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws globally, where applicable. Please refer to our Code of Business Conduct. If you have any questions, concerns or want to report any issue involving Baker McKenzie related to anti-corruption and anti-bribery please contact our General Counsel at the telephone number or email address shown on this web page.
E-mail Disclaimer
NOTICE: If you have received an e-mail from Baker McKenzie, the e-mail message and all attachments transmitted with it are intended solely for the use of the addressee and may contain legally privileged and confidential information. If the reader of the message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering the message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying, or other use of the message or its attachments is strictly prohibited. If you have received a message in error, please notify the sender immediately by replying to the message and please delete it from your computer.
PLEASE NOTE that all incoming e-mails will be automatically scanned by us and by an external service provider to eliminate unsolicited promotional e-mails (“spam”). This could result in deletion of a legitimate e-mail before it is read by its intended recipient at our firm. Please tell us if you have concerns about this automatic filtering.
Information About Fraudulent Emails and Phone Calls Referencing Baker McKenzie as well as Fake Websites and False Social Media Pages
Baker McKenzie is one of the largest and most prominent law firms in the world, employing thousands of lawyers and support staff in more than 45 countries. The size and prominence of our Firm unfortunately sometimes attracts the attention of unscrupulous individuals who falsely claim to work for Baker McKenzie and/or use our Firm's name to advance fraudulent schemes against innocent victims.
Scams and other security risks are rampant on the Internet, and we recommend you take steps to protect yourself and the security of your information. While we can report such abuses to law enforcement agencies, the nature and volume of these scams and frauds makes it impossible for our Firm to prevent the misuse of Baker McKenzie's name and the names of our lawyers.
Among the various misrepresentations referencing Baker McKenzie are: individuals falsely claiming to be from Baker McKenzie and making offers of employment or soliciting personal information or job application fees via email (often purporting to conduct "interviews" online via Google Hangouts with no in-person or telephonic interviews), or supposedly on behalf of a company using Baker McKenzie as a legal reference or point of contact for such purposes; individuals falsely claiming to be from Baker McKenzie and sending fake invoices seeking payment, including wire transfer instructions; individuals falsely claiming to be Baker McKenzie lawyers handling consumer debt collection cases, and threatening wage garnishment or arrest if funds are not provided immediately; individuals falsely claiming to be Baker McKenzie lawyers requesting to facilitate payment of money urgently for the benefit of a family member who has been in an automobile accident or other emergency; individuals falsely claiming to be from Baker McKenzie and forwarding supposed court notices that require an immediate response; and individuals falsely claiming to be Baker McKenzie lawyers promising to help people with green card (immigration) applications and processes. This is not an exhaustive list of scams; new tricks are being devised by criminals constantly.
In addition to the above, there are also pages or content on social media platforms that may appear to be legitimate Baker McKenzie sources but are not. In such cases, the content might purport to market legal services. When accessing social media pages purporting to be legitimate Baker McKenzie sources, always verify the authenticity of the social media page. Such fake content might include ads that claim to be sponsored by Baker McKenzie. A common example of this is fake "Fraud Recovery" Facebook pages and related websites whereby the fraudster targets people who have already lost money to a scam, with a further "refund and recovery" scam aimed at charging them a fee for recovery assistance.
What should you do? To report a potential e-mail, telephone, social media page, website or other scam, we recommend you contact the relevant police or government authorities in your jurisdiction. For example, in the US you can file reports with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center or "IC3" (including for cyber crime schemes and frauds that victimize individuals and businesses), and/or the FTC's Report Fraud website (for identity theft, imposter scams and rip-offs, bogus requests for money, etc.). Various cybercrime reporting websites within the European Union can be found via Europol. Also, OnGuardOnline has information about protecting against and reporting suspected online scams, as do other government websites. If you receive an email or threatening telephone call from someone claiming to be from Baker McKenzie and offering employment or seeking payment of money or personal information, we suggest:
- Communicate with such person using only the contact information provided for him or her on our website, www.bakermckenzie.com, i.e. do not communicate via other email addresses or telephone numbers or text messaging. For example, if the sender is using a non Baker McKenzie email address and / or justifies this on the basis that their Baker McKenzie account is not working, you should insist on contacting the sender only via the contact information on our website.
- Attempt to independently verify, including by telephone, the legitimacy of the caller’s identity, for example by contacting the Firm’s General Counsel.
- Do not send the email sender or caller any money.
- Do not give the email sender or caller any personal or financial information about yourself, for example, your bank accounts or credit card numbers.
- Report the fraudulent email or call to the police or other relevant authorities.
- If the issue is a fake Baker McKenzie social media page or website, do not communicate via the page or website and instead contact the platform provider to flag the fraudulent page or platform and have it taken down. Please also contact the Firm's Deputy General Counsel, Niall McSorley (niall.mcsorley@bakermckenzie.com)
In addition, if you receive a suspicious email referencing our Firm or appearing to be from our Firm (e.g. from a "spoofed" Baker McKenzie email address, which does not end in "@bakermckenzie.com"), we suggest the following:
- Do not open or click on any links contained in the email.
- Do not open or download any attachments to the email.
- Do not respond to the email in any way or provide any personal or confidential information in reply to the email.
- Do not send any money in response to the email.
- If applicable, forward the suspicious email to your organization’s IT Department and ask that they inspect the message to determine legitimacy.
- Delete (permanently) the message from your email account.
If you have questions about the security of your computer or suspect the security of your computer has been compromised, we recommend you contact your IT support team, computer manufacturer or Internet service provider.
Baker McKenzie is not involved in the scams listed above or any other scams. Note that we do not as a regular practice conduct Firm business via web-based email accounts such as gmail.com, hotmail.com or yahoo.com, or personal email addresses. And we generally do not conduct Firm business by text message or instant messaging. Neither Baker McKenzie nor its lawyers or employees can accept any responsibility for the criminal conduct of a third party claiming to use the Firm's name. If you have any concerns or receive suspicious communications that reference Baker McKenzie, please contact our General Counsel at the telephone number or email address shown on this web page.
Copyright and Reproduction Notice
Copyright © 2022 Baker McKenzie. All rights reserved. The content of the Baker McKenzie web sites is protected under international copyright conventions. Reproduction of reasonable portions of the content of the web sites is permitted provided that (i) such reproductions are made available free of charge and for non-commercial purposes, (ii) such reproductions are properly attributed to Baker McKenzie, (iii) the portion of the web site being reproduced is not altered or made available in a manner that modifies the content of the web site or presents the portion of the web site being reproduced in a false light and (iv) notice is made to the disclaimers included on the web site. The permission to re-copy does not allow for incorporation of any substantial portion of the web sites in any work or publication, whether in hard copy, electronic or any other form or for commercial purposes.