Baker McKenzie today announces that leading transactional lawyer Chris Milliken has joined the Firm as a partner, based in Ho Chi Minh City. Chris’s arrival underscores the continued, robust growth of the Firm’s transactional team in the region, which has seen the addition of M&A partnersShirin Tang and Ang Lip Kian in Singapore, Bima Sarumpaet in its member firm, HHP Law Firm, in Indonesia and Banking & Finance partner Bryan Paisley in Sydney
Chris has a broad corporate and finance practice, including M&A, private equity, joint ventures, financing and capital markets transactions in Vietnam and across Asia Pacific. He has extensive experience representing banks, private equity firms, private buyers and sellers in public deals and large-scale M&A and complex, cross-border structured investments.
Oanh Nguyen, managing partner of Baker McKenzie’s Vietnam offices, said: “We are excited to welcome Chris to the Firm. His international and local market experience, along with his transactional expertise, further strengthen our broad-based transactional offerings and enhance our ability to meet the demands of increasingly sophisticated financial sponsors and strategic investors seeking innovative solutions in the Vietnamese market.”
Andre Gan, Asia Pacific chair of Baker McKenzie’s M&A Practice, said: “Clients turn to Baker McKenzie because of our experience in handling complex inter- and intra-regional transactions seamlessly. Chris’s arrival adds further depth to our strong transactional practice. His wealth of dealmaking experience and deep understanding of local Vietnamese law position us well to support our clients with their growing cross-border transactions needs as Vietnam emerges as a key destination for international investors.”
Steven Sieker, Baker McKenzie’s Asia chief executive, added: “Chris’s appointment, following on from other recent additions in Asia, underscores our ongoing commitment to investing in quality talent and deepening our bench strength as we cement our position to be the firm of choice for complex legal work in the region.”
Chris said: “I am excited to be joining Baker McKenzie and be part of the continued growth of Baker McKenzie’s transactional team. I look forward to contributing to the Firm’s top-tier M&A practice and collaborating with my colleagues in Vietnam and abroad to bring our full-service offering to our clients.”
With more than 2,700 deal practitioners in 45 jurisdictions, Baker McKenzie is a transactional powerhouse. The Firm excels in complex, cross-border transactions; over 65% of our deals are multijurisdictional. Baker McKenzie has been consistently recognized as a top-three firm for cross-border M&A by volume over the past decade. The teams are a hybrid of ‘local’ and ‘global,’ combining money-market sophistication with local excellence.
Chris joins the Firm from Freshfields. He is recognized as a Rising Star for M&A, Capital Markets and Banking & Finance in Vietnam in IFLR1000 2024 Legal Guide. He is an active figure within the Vietnam business community, serving as a vice chair of the British Chamber of Commerce Vietnam and participating in several professional associations. These include the Vietnam Business Forum’s Capital Markets Working Group, the Power and Energy Working Group, and the Investment and Trade Working Group; the European Chamber of Commerce Vietnam’s Green Growth Sector Committee; and the British Chamber of Commerce Vietnam’s Energy Working Group. He is admitted to practice in England and Wales and is registered as a foreign legal practitioner with the Vietnamese Ministry of Justice. He graduated from BPP University Law School and the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Chris adds to a growing list of partners who have joined Baker McKenzie and its member firms in Asia Pacific since the start of 2024, including Bima Sarumpaet in Indonesia; Shirin Tang and Ang Lip Kian in Singapore; Sean Lim, John Kwak, Doug Suh and Sunyoung Kim in Seoul; Melanie Harwood in Brisbane; and Bryan Paisley in Sydney.
