Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison is best known for its strong litigation practice, but 2005 and 2006 also saw the firm appear on a number of high-profile M&A deals.

For example, the firm won a role advising on the $12.7bn (£6.8bn) acquisition of Adelphia Communications by Time Warner, its subsidiary Time Warner Cable and Comcast.

But it is its litigation expertise for which Paul Weiss is particularly known, and its track record in this area continued throughout 2006. Nowhere was its skills better evidenced than in the settlement the firm struck with the US government for former Credit Suisse technology banker Frank Quattrone. The deferred-prosecution agreement saw the government drop the case against the dotcom star and allowed him to resume his banking career.

The high-profile litigation and M&A helped Paul Weiss to a 12 per cent increase in total revenue for 2005, rising from £276.2m ($504m) to £309.3m ($563m) and placing it at number 40 in the revenue table.
More impressively, the firm regularly features among the most profitable in the world and its 2005 performance was no exception. A strong year saw average profit per equity partner jump up by 14.8 per cent, from £1.18m ($2.16m) to £1.36m ($2.48m). The result made it the fourth most profitable firm in the Global 100.

On the flip side, however, Paul Weiss paid part of a £99m ($180m) settlement in 2006 arising from the 1998 bankruptcy of Boston Chicken. The settlement also included investment banks Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley.

• The Top 100: 26-50