Just over two years ago, Baker McKenzie brought on Silicon Valley dealmaker Leif King from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom to execute its strategy for building a leading M&A practice in Palo Alto. Today, the firm’s transactional group has 36 lawyers in the Bay Area.

While the group hasn’t reached the size of some comparable groups at historic Bay Area firms, according to internal data, it’s a notable development for more-recent entrants to the market. Many of the firms that have flocked to the Bay Area to win more corporate work since 2019 have yet to grow their teams beyond a dozen lawyers or so, data shows.