Sullivan & Cromwell has been making the news recently. First it hired Jamie Logie from Norton Rose to establish a UK projects team, now it is hitting the headlines for being 'kinda French'.

The US firm's 16-lawyer Paris office has been instructed by Societe Generale (SocGen) – one of the pillars of France's banking system – to handle its acquisition of investment bank Paribas last week.

Paribas opted to stay faithful to esteemed French firm Rambaud Martel, which last year showed Linklaters' negotiating team the door after the City firm suggested it sign up to its continental alliance.

This is all causing quite a stir in Germany, France and Spain, particularly following US firm Shearman & Sterling's wake-up call to leading German practices last year when Daimler Benz instructed it to advise on local law in its merger with Chrysler.

The Sullivan team in Paris has worked for SocGen in the past, previously advising it on securities offerings. But sources say that the French bank was attracted by Sullivans' ability to offer both expert French and US law advice, so the firm could also handle US regulatory issues arising from the deal.

Are the Americans getting the edge in Europe?
Sullivans' clout is confirmed by an analysis of last year's major UK corporate finance deals, put together by CorpFinUK. It was one of two US firms – the other being Watchell Lipton Rosen & Katz – to be ranked among the top 10 firms by value of the deals they advised on.

It was Linklaters, however, which came out on top, acting on 209 deals with a value of £500,000 or more, in total adding up to £94.59bn of deals.

Freshfields, Slaughter and May, Clifford Chance and Lovell White Durrant followed close behind, with Slaughters completing the most deals of all at 239.

Sun Life organises break-up Linklaters' corporate partner Matthew Middleditch has been having fun organising the purchase and break up Guardian Royal Exchange's (GRE) UK and overseas assets.

Middleditch's client Sun Life & Provident, a subsidiary of French insurer Axa, has had a £3.4bn offer accepted by GRE, but that is just the start. In place are agreements with Liberty Mutual Co of the US to buy GRE's US-based assets for £888m.

Lawyers from leading sports firm Townleys advised Nationwide Building Society on its recently-closed sponsorship deal with the Football Association (FA). The £15m deal, closed on 21 January, came under scrutiny following England manager Glenn Hoddle's controversial remarks about the disabled.

Nationwide publicly distanced itself from Hoddle, but denied it had ever contemplated breaking the contract.
Partner Nic Couchman and his assistant Andy Korman advised on the deal which contains a clause allowing Nationwide to pull out if its interests and reputation are being jeopardised by its relationship with the FA.

Townleys would not comment on the controversy, but Legal Week understands the firm was not called on to advise Nationwide on the legal ramifications of Hoddle's remarks.

The deal was one of five signed by Nationwide, on which Townleys advised. The other four are worth a total of £10m.