Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw has leapt an astonishing 32 places in Thomson Financial’s rankings for US announced M&A deals for the first quarter of 2003.


UK firms Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance have also shot up the rankings, despite European acquisitions in the US dropping to their lowest level since 1995.

While Mayer Brown‘s spectacular rise could be attributed to the benefits of its 2002 US/UK merger, it should be noted that the bulk of its total was down to one deal. The firm advised Devon Energy on its $5bn (£3.19bn) acquisition of Ocean Energy. Mayer Brown advised on only one other transaction.

Like Mayer Brown, Allen & Overy advised on only two announced deals in the four-month period. The firm’s advice for Bank of New York’s $2bn (£1.28bn) deal for finance house Pershing accounts for more than half of its total.

Clifford Chance worked on five deals during the period. The largest was Johnson & Johnson’s acquisition of biopharmaceutical company Scios for $2.5bn (£1.6bn).

Linklaters was the only UK firm to fall. It dropped two places with deal total down 64.8 per cent.

Of the US firms, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett has shot to the top spot from tenth place. It advised on both the Scios and Pershing deals, as well as on the $3.5bn (£2.23bn) Taubman Centers deal.

Top 20 firms by announced US M&A deals
1/1/03-31/3/03 1/1/03-31/3/03 Change in rank value (%)
Adviser Rank Rank value $bn (£bn) Market share Number of deals Rank Rank value $bn (£bn) Rank value $bn (£bn)
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett 1
11.60 (7.40)
17.2
18
10
11.88 (7.58)
-2.4
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom 2
9.24 (5.90)
13.7
19
1
24.21 (15.45)
-61.8
Sullivan & Cromwell 3
8.91 (5.68)
13.2
14
4
14.85 (9.47)
-40.0
Morris Nichols Arsht & Tunnell 4
8.43 (5.38)
12.5
4
19
6.53 (4.17)
28.9
Debevoise & Plimpton 5
7.74 (4.94)
11.4
8
14
7.62 (4.86)
1.5
Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz 6
6.75 (4.31)
10.0
2
11
10.60 (6.76)
-36.4
Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw 7
5.00 (3.19)
7.4
2
39
1.36 (0.87)
268.5
Weil Gotshal & Manges 8
4.73 (3.02)
7.0
48
18
6.61 (4.22)
-28.5
Jones Day 9
4.64 (2.96)
6.9
55
24
5.20 (3.32)
-10.7
Allen & Overy 10
3.67 (2.34)
5.4
2
23
5.34 (3.41)
-31.3
Shearman & Sterling 11
3.66 (2.33)
5.4
6
28
3.85 (2.46)
-5.0
Willkie Farr & Gallagher 12
3.60 (2.30)
5.3
4
16
7.53 (4.80)
-52.2
Arnold & Porter 13
3.41 (2.18)
5.1
2
20
6.33 (4.04)
-46.0
Latham & Watkins 14
3.40 (2.17)
5.0
18
30
3.57 (2.28)
-4.9
Cravath Swaine & Moore 15
3.37 (2.15)
5.0
3
17
7.39 (4.72)
-54.4
Clifford Chance 16
3.00 (1.91)
4.4
5
25
4.91 (3.13)
-38.9
Linklaters 17
2.67 (1.70)
3.9
3
15
7.58 (4.84)
-64.8
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati 18
2.55 (1.63)
3.8
25
44
0.96 (0.61)
165.5
Dorsey & Whitney 19
1.70 (1.08)
2.5
17
77
0.27 (0.17)
529.0
Morgan Lewis & Bockius 20
1.64 (1.05)
2.4
8
80
0.20 (0.13)
715.3
Source: Thomson Financial