Manhattan leader Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom has topped the US M&A rankings after acting on $540bn (£274bn) worth of deals in a blockbuster year for US deal lawyers.
The New York firm rose one place to take top spot after advising on 237 deals, according to figures from Mergermarket. Sullivan & Cromwell came second, acting on 136 deals worth a total of $504bn (£255bn).
The total value of deals carried out rocketed 30% from $1.3trn (£658bn) in 2005 to $1.7trn (£861bn) in 2006.
In 2005, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett topped the table working on 122 deals worth $369bn (£187bn). This year the firm came third, while M&A boutique Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz rose three places to fourth.
One of the biggest falls was seen by Weil Gotshal & Manges, which dropped eight places from its 2005 ranking of fifth.
Much of the activity was driven by private equity, with buy-out houses often pooling their resources to secure a series of multibillion dollar take-privates.
In November, Simpson Thacher and Sidley Austin bagged key roles on Blackstone's $36bn (£19bn) bid for Chicago-based building owner Equity Office Properties Trust ‹ the biggest ever attempted leveraged buy-out at the time.
However, the bid has since been trumped by Vornado Equity Trust's $38bn (£19bn) offer.
Other notable 2006 deals included the $33bn (£18bn) buy-out of Tennessee-based hospital chain HCA in August, with Simpson Thacher, Sullivan and Shearman & Sterling bagging key roles.
Last year also saw the biggest management buy-out ever as Weil Gotshal and Wachtell Lipton advised on the $22bn (£11.6bn) buy-out of energy giant Kinder Morgan.
Skadden global head of corporate Thomas Kennedy said: "What contributed to 2006 being a very good year was both a significant amount of strategic M&A and increased private equity activity. If interest rates remain relatively low and liquidity relatively high, 2007 will also be a robust year."
Sullivan M&A head Jim Morphy added: "Normally there are either a lot of cash deals or stock deals, but in 2006, the stock buyers, the cash buyers and the private equity houses all came to the market."
