Hemscott’s quarterly corporate adviser rankings show Norton Rose in pole position with 120 stock market clients, Slaughter and May in second with 113 quoted clients, Ashurst and Eversheds in equal third place with 110 clients and Pinsent Masons in fifth place with 97 clients.
The tables this time last year saw Ashurst on top with 118 quoted clients.
Norton Rose head of corporate Tim Marsden told Legal Week: “These results are part of our long-standing strategy to take to market good quality companies that we can potentially help to expand and get involved in further M&A work for.”
In the key FTSE 100 rankings Slaughter and May held on to its lead with 27 ranked clients, compared with Linklaters in second position with 22 clients.
Allen & Overy (A&O) took over from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in third place, up one place from last quarter as the number of its FTSE 100 clients increased from 18 to 20. Client Cable & Wireless moved back into the FTSE 100 at the end of last year while, following the merger of Alliance UniChem and Boots, Alliance Boots became an A&O client.
Freshfields saw FTSE 100 clients drop from 19 to 18 as PartyGaming fell into the FTSE 250. Herbert Smith remains in fifth position but with its clients up from 14 to 15 after it was instructed by Slough Estates on its secondary listing on Euronext last December.
In rankings of advisers to companies listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), DLA Piper maintained its lead with 58 clients. Norton Rose has moved into second place, seeing its clients up from 50 to 56. Pinsent Masons, meanwhile, has also moved up one, in at three with its number of AIM clients up from 48 to 55.
