Clifford Chance banking partner Alan Inglis has long been one of the firm’s major billers, but 2005 was an exceptional year even by his standards.

He advised JPMorgan on Malcolm Glazer’s bid for Manchester United FC, in which the financing structure was crucial to the entire deal and was itself highly controversial.

Although Inglis is Clifford Chance’s second string in the Goldman Sachs relationship, he rode his luck in landing the mandate to advise the bank on the £17.7bn acquisition by Telefonica of O2 - the largest-ever cash bid in the UK. That was followed by a role for Goldman Sachs on the hedge fund-led Peacock buyout.

Despite these enormous banking jobs, Inglis found that half his time during 2005 was taken up with advising sponsors. It was he who drafted Permira’s monster term sheet, which helped set the trend for private equity houses flexing their muscles in documentation and execution.