Ashurst associates Chris Taylor, Fuat Sami and Alexander Cox — lawyers in property, employment and corporate respectively — bagged high placings in the volume rankings for
First place was taken up by Gavin Gordon, who became a corporate partner this year after acting on 20 deals for the firm worth a total value of E14.7bn (£9.9bn) from January 2005 to present.
It is the second time in a row that Ashurst has topped the M&A tables after nine lawyers appeared in the top 20 rankings for volume in the three-year period to December 2004.
Gordon commented: “Associates get a good level of responsibility at Ashurst and, as a firm, we do a lot of deals per lawyer. Topping the tables for the past six years is promising for associates and trainees coming up through the ranks.”
Sullivan & Cromwell had seven associates in the top 10 in the value rankings for UK M&A. Sullivan tax lawyer David Passey led the table after completing three UK deals worth a combined value of E73.6bn (£49.8bn).
Another Sullivan lawyer, Angel Saad, topped the European M&A rankings by value after acting on 12 deals worth E160.4bn (£109bn).
Linklaters performed well in the European M&A table by volume, appearing seven times in the top 20 table with finance and tax lawyer Edouard Chapellier — who became a partner this year — producing the best results acting on 25 deals worth a total of E16.6bn (£11bn).