Merger Mavens

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom topped Thomson Reuters' list of law firms that advised on the highest-value mergers and acquisition deals last year, jumping from the No. 6 spot it earned in 2011. Skadden's success was partially due to several whopping transactions, including Rosneft Oil Co.'s $56 billion acquisition of Russian oil producer TNK-BP. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett—last year's top M&A adviser—and Sullivan & Cromwell rounded out the top three spots.

200 Deals that Skadden Arps advised on in 2012, down from 201 the previous year

$316 billion Total value of those deals, up from $233 billion in 2011

133 Deals that Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, the second-place firm, advised on in 2012

$281 billion Total value of those deals, down from $295 billion in 2011

Discovery Decisions

E-discovery is certainly a buzzword in the legal industry these days, as courts across the country continue to issue decisions on the subject. Kroll Ontrack recently analyzed all of those opinions and found that most e-discovery decisions dealt with sanctions cases, although procedural disputes gained ground as a popular subject of judicial opinions.

32% Cases that addressed sanctions for issues such as preservation, spoliation and production disputes, a decrease of 10 percent since 2011

29% Cases that discussed procedural issues such as search protocol, production and privilege

14% Cases that discussed cost considerations, such as cost-shifting of e-discovery expenses

9% Cases that mentioned technology-assisted review or predictive coding, which had never been discussed in a reported opinion before February 2012's ruling in Da Silva Moore v. Publicis Groupe

Compliance Concerns

Anti-bribery laws—namely the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act—have been making headlines in recent months, as companies from Wal-Mart to Pfizer have been caught up in corruption allegations. But it's not just U.S. businesses that may be vulnerable to violations of these laws. A recent survey of Asia-Pacific companies by Kroll Advisory Solutions found that fewer than half of the companies surveyed had performed risk assessments on their exposure to the two acts.

48.7% Companies surveyed that had thoroughly assessed their vulnerability to enforcement of the two acts

51.3% Companies that had not completed such assessments, and either did not know the effectiveness of their compliance systems or believed their internal controls to be insufficient

70% Companies in the Asia-Pacific region that said they were at risk for corruption and bribery, according to an earlier Kroll study