Baker McKenzie hires lateral partner, promotes 23

Across the globe, the firm’s transactional practices saw the largest number of partner promotions, with women also accounting for 47 per cent of this year’s partner promotions, equivalent to 28 out of 59 promotions globally.

In Australia, John Coleman has been promoted to partner in the firm’s corporate practice. Based in Sydney, Coleman has more than 15 years of experience in private equity and has been with the firm since 2023.

The firm has also added Hamish McCormack to the partnership, who joins after working as a special counsel at Norton Rose Fulbright. Based in Melbourne, McCormack specialises in leveraged finance and special situations and liability management arrangements, having advised across many large-scale, complex financing transactions.

McCormack previously spent time working for leading law firms in the US before returning to Australia – and national managing partner Anne-Marie Allgrove said his cross-border experience would make him a valuable asset to the team.

“Hamish offers our clients deep experience obtained whilst working on matters spanning the USA, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Africa. His leveraged and project finance experience, coupled with acting on large, complex financings for M&A deals, makes him the perfect fit for our banking and transactional practices,” she said.

“In addition, he also offers extensive trade and commodity finance experience in the Asia-Pacific region. At a time of growth, we look forward to welcoming Hamish to our firm.”

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In addition to Coleman’s promotion, Sinan Alnajjar, Samantha Copeland, Colette Downie, Luke Hall, Nathan Jones, Nick Kraegen, Rebecca Tan, and Alecia Thompson have been promoted to special counsel in Australia.

The firm’s new senior associates in Australia are Kelsey Baird, Georgina Barnes, Charlie Berro, Andrew Elias, Anita Ganesan, Tom Gibson, Manny Kanellis, Ellen Leishman, Sophie L., Erin McLeod, India Shores, Fizzah Usama, Julie Zhu and Aleksandra Zochowski.

This comes after the firm elected a London-based partner from its international trade, compliance and investigations team to the role of global chair in June and the addition of special counsel Lisa Mazor in May – who joined after the firm added banking and finance partner Bryan Paisley earlier this year, who worked with Mazor at Hogan Lovells.

Tax partner Dixon Hearder also returned to the firm in February, after the addition of a former general counsel as a new construction partner in Brisbane in November and the firm’s naming of a new India chair in the same month.

Global chair Milton Cheng congratulated those promoted.

“More than ever this year, it is an honour to announce our promotions to partner. I extend my sincere congratulations to this exceptionally talented group of lawyers who will help us continue to build on our strengths as a global firm in a broad range of locations, practices, and sectors,” he said.

“Their unwavering dedication to client service and excellence will be key in driving our firm’s success, and we look forward to their many more contributions in the years to come.”