Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom has acted for iconic brand Coca-Cola on its biggest acquisition to date, the $4.1bn (£2.1bn) purchase of energy drinks company Energy Brand.

Skadden fielded a team out of its New York office led by M&A partners Martha McGarry and Sean Doyle.

Coca-Cola has been a Skadden client for the last few years but this is by far the biggest mandate the firm has acted for them on. The company is known to have used firms including King & Spalding in the past.

McGarry and Doyle have been responsible for advising some of Skadden's largest clients in recent years. They have acted for companies including Alcoa, American Express, CIT Group, Citigroup, Verizon Communications and Harrah's Entertainment.

Debevoise & Plimpton was lead counsel to Energy, with corporate partner Jeffrey Rosen playing a key role. Shearman & Sterling advised India's Tata, which last year paid $667m (£336.2m) for a 30% in Energy. New York M&A partner Stephen Besen advised the group on the sale of its share.

Coca-Cola is also understood to be preparing a £500m bid for Scotland's Highland Spring mineral water.

The Energy Brand acquisition is the latest big-ticket M&A deal that Skadden's New York office has advised on. Last month it was announced that M&A partner Eric Friedman and finance partner Sarah Ward were heading up a team advising Nasdaq on the US aspects of its $3.7bn (£1.9bn) acquisition of Nordic exchange operator OMX.

Friedman is also playing a key role on the firm's team that is advising the US exchange on its bid to merge with the London Stock Exchange (LSE), which it values at around £2.7bn.