Australia Flavour Of The Month With UK Law Firms

Not really surprising considering the Rio Tinto deal, the fact that the Australian economy looks sound and the $ is roaring along…

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The Lawyer (UK) reports

Australia is flavour of the year with UK firms, and given that a number of Aussie firms are rocketing up the deals tables, it is no wonder. A year ago not one Australian firm could claim a place on the list of the top 25 firms ranked by the combined value of the worldwide deals they had worked on.

Only Allens Arthur Robinson, which was ranked 28 by deal value in the period from January to September 2008, came anywhere close, although its instructions on deals worth a combined total of $80bn (?48.27bn) was small fry compared with the $423.12bn worth of deals that top-ranked Sullivan & Cromwell was instructed on. Fast forward a year and the picture is completely different. According to data from Thomson Reuters, Allens is ranked fifth in terms of worldwide mandates, having been instructed on 55 announced deals with a combined value of $197.15bn and sitting just behind elite firms Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom and Shearman & Sterling respectively. Aussie counterparts Freehills, Blake Dawson and Mallesons Stephen Jacques also make it onto the list, with respective rankings of 21, 23 and 24. This does not mean that Australian firms are about to overtake the transatlantic elite.

Full report at?? http://www.thelawyer.com/uk-firms-eye-opportunities-down-under-as-aussie-quartet-muscle-in/1002536.article