US Law firms plummet down UK M&A deal rankings

[Jaysen]

Interesting article from Legal Week today: https://www.law.com/legal-week/2019/01/08/us-firms-plummet-down-uk-ma-deal-rankings/

It's behind a paywall, so I'll summarise the main points:

• For the first time in years, the magic circle/UK law firms have dominated the 2018 M&A league tables
• US firms Kirkland & Ellis, Davis Polk and Skadden all fell down the rankings last year.
• The fall contrasts the last three years where at least two US firms have been in the top five rankings.
• Freshfields topped the table for deal value followed by Slaughters, HSF, CC, A&O and Linklaters.
• The suggestion from a Freshfields partner interviewed by Legal Week is that "clients might look at using a different firm for big public deals than they would for private equity deals". Notably, US firms have struggled to break into the UK public M&A market, which is dominated by the magic circle.
• DLA Piper did the most deals in the UK followed by CMS.
• UK M&A deal volume fell in the fourth quarter of 2018.