BEST LEGAL ADVISERS
By Michael Shari
| Global |
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom |
| North America | Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton |
| Latin America |
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom |
| Western Europe | Freshfields |
| CEE | Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton |
| Asia-Pacific | Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu |
| Middle East | Freshfields |
| Africa | Clifford Chance |
BEST LEGAL ADVISERS
GLOBAL
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom rose to first place as a legal adviser on M&A deals that had a greater combined value—$379.5 billion—than any other law firm in the world last year. It worked on 252 deals representing 13% of the global M&A market.
NORTH AMERICA
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton advised a small army of investment banks on four separate equity follow-on issues by AIG that raised a total of $38.2 billion dollars last year.
LATIN AMERICA
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom defended its top position in Latin America’s M&A market last year as a legal adviser in 15 deals valued at $36.4 billion, representing a 21% market share.
WESTERN EUROPE
Freshfields
Freshfields is number one in Western Europe’s M&A market, advising on 145 deals valued at $168.6 billion last year. It advised Porsche on the sale of 50.1% of its equity to Volkswagen of Germany.
CEE
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton advised TNK-BP on its ground-breaking sale of a 50% equity stake to Rosneftegaz last October. It also advised on seven large M&A deals valued at $64.2 billion and made up a 35.8% market share last year.
ASIA-PACIFIC
Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom defended its top position in Latin America’s M&A market last year as a legal adviser in 15 deals valued at $36.4 billion, representing a 21% market share.
MIDDLE EAST
Freshfields
Freshfields retained its number-one position in the Middle East M&A market, advising clients on 12 deals valued at $5.9 billion with an 11% market share last year.
AFRICA
Clifford Chance
Clifford Chance advised clients on 10 M&A deals valued at $4.1 bil-lion in Africa last year, ranking second on the continent. In a $2.6 bil-lion deal in North Africa in December, the firm advised Qatar National Bank on its acquisition of National Société Générale Bank of Egypt.
Sources