Lovell White Durrant is claiming an edge over its rivals in life assurance demutualisations after advising on the first of several such deals expected this year.

A team of more than 25 lawyers from the corporate insurance team, led by John Young, advised Australian-based life assurers AMP on its £2.7bn acquisition of NPI opposite Herbert Smith, another frontrunner in the field.

Lovells has now advised on three of the four life assurance demutualisations that have gone ahead in the UK so far, and believes it is in a good position to tap into an expected surge in demutualisations this year.

John Young, who heads Lovells' corporate insurance department, said: "The firm scores against its rivals because of the sheer breadth of our insurance practice".

However, a partner at a rival firm put some of Lovells' success down to luck. He pointed out that Lovells' client Prudential, which acquired Scottish Amicable in 1997 for £2.9bn

The other deal Lovells acted on was its client Clerical & Medical's acquisition by Halifax in 1996.

In the only other UK life assurance demutualisation to date, Slaughter and May acted for Norwich Union when it floated in July 1997.

There are a dozen or so mutual assurance companies that have the potential to follow NPI, including Standard Life Equitable and Friends Provident.

Low interest rates and a bearish outlook in equities are putting pressure on mutuals to find new ways to hit profit targets.