Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom

Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom posted worldwide revenues of $2.17bn in 2011, with its $152m UK billings placing it in seventh place in The Lawyer Top 30 International Firms in London.

Skadden has 23 offices worldwide and acted on a string of impressive mandates in 2011–12.

It was one of only a handful of firms chosen to advise as Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR), which owned a 50 per cent stake in BP's Russian joint venture TNK-BP, sold its stake to Rosneft for $28bn (£17.5bn). The firm also advised AAR on the parallel deal where BP sold its 50 pert cent stake in TNK-BP to Rosneft for $27bn (£16.8bn). Together, the two deals formed one of the largest M&A transactions of 2012.

2012 also saw Skadden, which is a longstanding adviser to Roman Abramovich, successfully defend the Chelsea FC owner in a $5bn High Court case with Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky. This case is typical of the kinds of high-profile litigation cases that Skadden handles every year. As testament to its strength in this field, the firm posted a healthy disputes turnover of $974.2m in 2012.

Other 2012 deal highlights include the firm's role acting as US and French counsel to Mexico's Cemex as it brought to a close its $7.2bn debt restructuring package and advising the shareholders of American mobile carrier Sprint Nextel as they sold a 70 per cent stake in the company to Japanese telecoms group SoftBank for $20.1bn (£13.1bn), making it one of the largest ever cross-border deals to come out of Japan.