The Legal 500

Allen & Overy LLP maintains its reputation alongside Clifford Chance as the City’s leading finance firm, with outstanding institutional relationships and a proven record in the most complex domestic and international transactions. It has top-tier rankings across the finance spectrum, ranging from acquisition finance, corporate restructuring, debt capital markets and securitisation, to derivatives and structured products, PFI and property finance. It is also outstanding in disputes, with a leading practice across arbitration, banking and commercial litigation, fraud and contentious trusts. Its concerted progress on the M&A side continues, with key clients in 2007 including ABN Amro (advised in relation to its takeover battle) and Tyco (advised by the entire firm network on the US$65bn spin-off of its healthcare and electronics business), and it rises in the ranking in private equity, where it has been active for clients such as Charterhouse and Apax Partners. It also rises this year in hedge funds, Islamic finance, and pensions disputes, and joins the top tier in employment.

Clifford Chance, for many the leading global firm, has a pre-eminent reputation with Allen & Overy LLP in finance; it has a sweep of top-tier practices in the area, ranking behind the latter firm only in debt capital markets and ahead of it in investment funds, futures and trade finance. Beyond finance, it rises to the top tier in M&A this year on the back of advice to Barclays, George Wimpey, Standard Life and Man Group, and has the premium private equity buyout practice (as well as great strength in private equity funds), with recent deals including KKR’s £11.1bn acquisition of Alliance Boots. It has an outstanding showing across disputes, with leading practices in arbitration, commercial and banking litigation, fraud, and public international law, and is a heavyweight presence in the commercial property market, winning real estate team of the year at the 2008 Legal Business awards for its work advising Metrovacesa in the £1.1bn sale and leaseback of HSBC’s global headquarters. Other promotions in the rankings are Islamic finance and IT and telecoms, and it is new in professional negligence and pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP may still rank behind Magic Circle competitors in certain areas of finance (acquisition and structured finance, bank lending, debt capital markets among them), but it has a hugely impressive array of top-tier practices; chief among them are M&A, where recent deals include ICI’s £8.1bn takeover by Akzo Nobel, and Pearl Group’s £4.9bn contested takeover of Resolution; EU and competition; and equity capital markets, where deals included Criteria CaixaCorp’s €1.43bn listing. On the contentious side, it adds to its leading practices in commercial and banking litigation and fraud with promotion to the top tier of arbitration, where it has advised clients such as WPP, Rolls-Royce, Suez, Boeing and BP. Private equity, corporate restructuring, financial services, corporate tax and PFI are among its other core strengths, while other promotions include acquisition finance (where it hired White & Case LLP’s former practice heads Maurice Allen and Mike Goetz), investment funds, and environment. It won Legal Business’ law firm of the year award, as well banking/restructuring team of the year for its work on the Eurotunnel restructuring.

Linklaters LLP’s haul of market-leading practices includes M&A and equity capital markets alongside finance practices ranging from acquisition finance, bank lending, restructuring, derivatives and structured products, and securitisation, to PFI and project finance. Headline corporate deals in 2007 included advising Rio Tinto as the target of a £75bn offer from BHP Billiton, and acting for the winning RBS-led consortium on the €79bn acquisition of ABN Amro, alongside acting for the underwriters on three of the year’s largest IPOs (VTB Bank, DP World and DLF). On the contentious side it rates particularly highly for banking litigation, and rises in fraud, public international law and professional negligence, while in real estate it rises to the top tier of commercial property this year, in recognition of its international reach and experience in high-end deals such as the sale and leaseback of Merrill Lynch’s headquarters. It has the dominant emerging markets practice, with particular strength across Russia, India and Africa, and other core strengths include tax, financial services, investment funds, rail, and IT and telecoms. The firm won structured finance/debt capital markets team of the year at the Legal Business awards, for its advice to RBS on the ABN Amro deal. Simon Davis succeeded Tony Angel as the firm’s managing partner.

By some margin the smallest Magic Circle firm, Slaughter and May is synonymous with high-calibre, versatile, high-earning partners and a client base of leading UK and other corporates, and is also distinguished by its independent status and ‘best-friends’ strategy (its only international offices are in Brussels, Paris and Hong Kong). It advised on the £11.1bn takeover of Alliance Boots (the year’s largest UK public takeover) and also on the bid for Corus Group by Tata Steel, while other key work included a high-profile role post-credit crunch advising HM Treasury in relation to the crisis at Northern Rock. In addition to M&A, the firm maintains market-leading practices in EU and competition and corporate tax, and ranks highly in areas such as banking and commercial litigation, asset finance, restructuring, and corporate insurance. It moves up in arbitration this year, in recognition of a practice spanning Europe, the Middle East, India and the US, while other improved rankings are in pensions disputes and electricity, renewables and nuclear. Corporate partner Christopher Saul has succeeded Tim Clark as the firm’s senior partner.

Herbert Smith LLP maintains its pre-eminent reputation across dispute resolution, energy, and regulatory; it has top-tier practices including commercial litigation; fraud; contentious trusts and probate; administrative and public law; and electricity and renewables, while also ranking very highly in EU and competition, arbitration, and financial services and investment funds. It also rates as a top-six firm for M&A and equity capital markets, with key work in those areas including advising Resolution on the various bids made for it and its eventual sale to Pearl, and Marfin’s €5.2bn equity offering (advising the underwriters). On the property side, recent clients include sovereign wealth funds such as the Government Investment Corporation of Singapore, along with Hammerson and Rockpoint. It rises in the ranking in M&A (US capability), hedge funds, environment, and pharmaceuticals and biotechnology this year, and won financial services and insurance team of the year at the Legal Business awards. Following a review of the firm’s management structure David Willis has become managing partner.

Ashurst LLP has outstanding strength in private equity, notably in continental Europe, and also in acquisition finance, where recent instructions include the multibillion-pound merger of Saga and the AA for Barclays Capital and Mizuhi, while its other headline M&A deals included the £1.8bn acquisition of United Utilities. It has a leading practice in PFI, where its high-profile 12-partner team has been particularly active of late in the Irish market, and it also has great strength across commercial property, construction and property litigation. It moves up in both equity and debt capital markets this year, on the back of deals such as Imperial Tobacco’s £5.4bn rights issue, and has also been promoted in fraud, commercial litigation, pensions and rail. It won Legal Business’ tax team of the year, for its work across high-end transactions and litigation, with Geoffrey Green also winning management partner of the year.

Lovells LLP is well established as a leading player in the property market, with related strengths including construction (particularly transport, energy and major international projects) and planning. It has a high-calibre insurance practice (with top-tier rankings in corporate insurance, insurance insolvency and product liability), and shows very strongly across the full spectrum of dispute resolution (including pensions disputes, property litigation and fraud). Its corporate team in London has seen some personnel changes, including the departure of Hugh Nineham for McDermott Will & Emery UK LLP, but saw deal highlights such as Schering Plough’s €11bn acquisition of Organon Biosciences. It is new to the equity capital markets (US) ranking, as well as moving up in hedge funds, environment and rail. It won Legal Business’ most enterprising law firm of the year award, for its pioneering alliance in China.

Norton Rose LLP, with its core targets ranging across transport, financial services, technology, energy and corporate finance, has a top-tier practice in asset finance, where a 25-partner group handles the full gamut of aircraft, shipping and rail work, and also in Islamic finance, where recent work includes the Middle East’s first Islamic PPP; the firm recently opened an office in Saudi Arabia and also secured a licence for Abu Dhabi. It also has leading practices in small and mid-cap flotations and corporate insurance, and has a thriving dispute resolution practice, with banking-related litigation a key component in its growth; it moves up in both arbitration and commercial litigation, as well as attracting a new recommendation in professional negligence. Active M&A clients include Aer Lingus, Nestlé and Carlsberg, which instructed the firm on its acquisition of Scottish & Newcastle with Heineken.

Simmons & Simmons’ strategic focus remains on four key areas: financial services; energy and infrastructure; life sciences; and TMT. It has market-leading practices in employment, where recent clients include Virgin Media alongside financial institutions such as Visa, Morgan Stanley and UBS; pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, where strengths include both transactional work and patent litigation and recent clients include Lundbeck and Genmab; and hedge funds. On the M&A side, Spain’s Telefónica is a leading client and has instructed the firm on two deals worth almost £20bn in the last three years, while other strengths are investment funds and structured finance. It rises in the ranking in areas including arbitration, fraud, financial services, and product liability this year.