May be nothing, but seems Spoopy.
Paul Rawlinson, 56, the global chair of Baker McKenzie, passed away on Friday, April 12. No cause of death given. Rawlinson took leave in October last year due to medical issues caused by exhaustion, the firm said.
Rawlinson's clients were Unilever, L’Oreal, and British American Tobacco.
Co-workers got really mushy about his passing:
He was “business savvy” and someone who “understood the real issues that law firms today are facing, such as the need to understand branding and business drivers”.
“He didn’t have an ego and he was not beyond talking to people.”
Baker Mckenzie
Baker McKenzie became an international firm beginning in 1955, when a lawyer in Venezuela contacted Baker McKenzie about opening a joint venture office in Caracas. Russell Baker's son, Donald, moved to Caracas to launch the satellite office. Within the next three years, offices were opened in Washington, D.C., Amsterdam, Brussels, Zurich, New York and São Paulo.
Rather than practicing U.S. law abroad, Baker McKenzie trained local lawyers, often bringing them to its Chicago base for an initial period, or temporarily relocating U.S. attorneys to the foreign office, to oversee the establishment of the practice. By 1978, Baker McKenzie had 26 offices in 20 countries.'
As of August 2018, it is ranked as the second-largest international law firm in the world by headcount with 13,000 employees including 6,076 fee earners and 4,700 lawyers on a full-time equivalent basis in 78 offices across 47 countries. It is the largest law firm in the United States by headcount. It is also ranked as the third largest law firm in the world in terms of revenue with US$2.89 billion.
In 1999, Christine Lagarde, the Paris managing partner and an antitrust and labor lawyer, was elected chair of the global executive committee, the first woman to lead Baker McKenzie; she was chair for five years. She then served as France's Minister of Finance. In June 2011, she was elected as the first woman to become managing director of the International Monetary Fund.
Baker McKenzie was the lawfirm involved in the story for the film Philadelphia, starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington.
Baker McKenzie is organized as a Swiss Verein which allows regional profit pools and their related tax, accounting and partner compensation systems to remain separate while allowing strategy, branding, information technology and other core functions to be shared between the constituent partnerships.
https://www.worldipreview.com/news/paul-rawlinson-global-chair-of-baker-mckenzie-dies-aged-56-17824