Baker & McKenzie Announces 256 New Jobs

Enterprise, Trade and Investment Minister Arlene Foster has announced that global law firm Baker & McKenzie has chosen Northern Ireland as the location for its new Global Services Centre creating 256 quality jobs.

The new centre, to be based in Belfast, will comprise over 70 staff in legal services and 185 in administrative global services providing HR, IT, payroll and billing services, among other support lines.

Ms Foster said: "This highly significant investment, by Baker & McKenzie, the world's largest law firm, is another vote of confidence in what Northern Ireland can offer international professional services firms.

"Baker & McKenzie considered a number of locations around the world but, through the excellent work of Invest NI, and the advocacy of other international investors, including what they heard when they attended the Investment Conference last year, the company chose Northern Ireland.

"I met with senior representatives from the firm in Chicago in June during my visit to the US and was able to outline just what Northern Ireland could offer. Once again it was our talented workforce, cost-effective environment and attractive financial support packages that secured the investment for Northern Ireland.

"The legal services operation will be the first unit of its type globally for Baker & McKenzie, and, as such, can be seen as a real coup for Belfast. These are high quality jobs, contributing over £8million in salaries to the economy every year.

"With roles available across a variety of functions this investment will provide a wide range of opportunities for people at various stages of their career, from graduates to legal and other professionals. The firm is also keen to work closely with our universities to help develop curricula that will produce graduates with industry-relevant skills, making Northern Ireland an even more attractive to other global legal firms."

(CD/JP)