Road works: Magic circle firm Linklaters advised 16 commercial banks, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and 15 investment banks on a £6.2bn contract for the M25 motorway. Connect Plus, a consortium of Balfour Beatty, Skanska, Egis Projects and Atkins, will widen the M25 and provide ongoing maintenance of 250 miles of road. City firm Ashurst advised Connect Plus while City firm Denton Wilde Sapte advised the Highways Agency. EIB took additional legal advice from magic circle firm Slaughter and May.

Fund raising: Magic circle firm Clifford Chance advised Citibank, Goldman Sachs and Royal Bank of Scotland on a $1.75bn (£1bn) fundraising for Mubadala Development Company, an investment company based in Abu Dhabi. Magic circle firm Allen & Overy advised Mubadala.

Identity contracts: City firm Field Fisher Waterhouse advised the Identity and Passport Service on two contracts for the National Identity Service. A £385m contract was awarded to Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) to upgrade the passport enrolment system, while IBM won a £265m contract to create a database for biometric information. CSC and IBM were advised by in-house teams.

Property rights: City firm Lovells advised property investment company Shaftesbury on a £150m rights issue, allowing the company to acquire properties in London’s West End. Investment banks NM Rothschild, JP Morgan Cazenove and Merrill Lynch sponsored the fundraising, and took advice from magic circle firm Freshfields.

Coal takeover: City firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain (RPC), alongside Canadian firm Lawson Lundell, advised Western Canadian Coal Corporation on its £67m takeover of Cambrian Mining. RPC also advised Western on restructuring $27m (£16m) of Cambrian’s debt. City firm Trowers & Hamlins advised Cambrian Mining.