New York's Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom has scored a corporate double after topping separate tables for US and global M&A in the first half of 2003.

The result saw the US giant maintain its commanding lead at the top of Thomson Financial's rankings for US M&A while also knocking Linklaters from its prized place as the number one adviser in the global tables – a position the London firm held throughout 2002.

The firm advised on a total of 80 deals with a combined value of $96.26bn (£60bn), well ahead of the second-ranked Linklaters with 134 deals valued at $64.3bn (£38.7bn).

London firms remained strong performers in the global tables, with Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy ranking third and fourth on respective deal values of $57.72bn (£34.77bn) and $53bn (£32bn).

Much of the firms' performance was driven by deals outside of the US market reflecting continued falls this year in US deal activity, which declined 16.7% in value compared to 2002, against a 5.7% fall in global deals.

Skaddens secured top spot in the US by working on 56 announced deals worth $41.7bn (£25bn) for the first half of 2003, down 17.4% from the corresponding 2002 period.

Skaddens M&A head Frank Gittes told Legal Week Global: "Over the past decade there has been increasing international business activity and, for our firm, it is helpful to maintain the ability to serve our clients wherever required."

Other firms to perform well in the US tables included Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, Simpson Thacher & Barlett and Latham & Watkins, which all saw sharp increases in their US deal rankings.

Mark Gerstein, co-chair of Lathams' global M&A practice, commented: "We experienced significant M&A activity both on the strategic side and the private equity side. We also experienced significant increase in deal volume in the energy sector and in our European deal flow."

As expected, the firms that saw the sharpest falls in deal values were the elite Wall Street advisers that have been worst hit by the collapse in big ticket M&A.

Notably, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Cravath Swaine & Moore and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz all saw falls in deal value of more than 50% against their 2002 performance.

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