Baker McKenzie’s Australian partners have delivered a resounding rebuke to the firm’s leadership, comprehensively rejecting regional merger plans for the second time this month.

The motion to financially integrate with the global firm’s Asian division, which required 75 per cent approval, failed by an even greater margin than the initial ballot. Less than 30 per cent of salaried partners, who make up about half of the 70-member partnership, voted for the proposal. About two-thirds of equity partners voted for the motion.