Survey questions whether size matters for top M&A lawyers

The solicitors who do the most big-ticket mergers and acquisition (M&A) deals are not the ones who do the very biggest ones, a survey revealed last week.Depending on which table is preferred, David Cheyne of Linklaters or Adam Signy of Clifford Chance is the top M&A lawyer.The survey of 10 million-plus deals was carried out for the inaugural European mergers and acquisitions awards launched by mergermarket.com, a new Web site for M&A practitioners and their clients, which is set to launch at the end of this month.The list of the lawyers advising on the deals with the highest value was topped by Mr Cheyne with a total deal value of 191 billion, more than 20 billion ahead of his nearest rivals, Kathryn Campbell and Benjamin Stapleton of US firm Sullivan & Cromwell (168 billion and 162 billion respectively).

Below them on the list were Scott Simpson (US firm Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom), Christopher Pearson (Norton Rose), Iain Fenn (Linklaters), Anthony Salz (Freshfields), Laurence Levy (Norton Rose), Hilary Foulkes (Skadden Arps) and Simon Marchant (Freshfields).In the table of advisers ranked by number of deals, Mr Signy came top with ten deals, followed by: Matthew Middleditch (Linklaters), Alan Paul (Allen & Overy), Alan Greenough (Pinsent Curtis), Jeff Twentyman, Martin Hattrell and Neil Hyman (all Slaughter and May), Chris Hale (Travers Smith Braithwaite), Cindy Cook (Allen & Overy) and Christopher Brown (Freshfields).

The combined total value of those deals carried out by the top-ten lawyers appearing in number of deals list was 72 billion.

The size of a deal is often thought to be a better indicator of the work a firm is doing, because larger deals tend to be more complex.Jeff Twentyman of Slaughter and May said the market throughout last year had been 'fantastically busy' and that 'everyone had an awful lot of work'.

He added: 'There are no signs of the current levels of activity abating.'Mergermarket.com has also produced a list for the first quarter of this year, topped by Slaughter and May pair Howard Nolan (number of deals) and Robert Stern (value of deals).Jeremy Fleming