Nearly two years ago this column recorded the derision aimed at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer following the self-touted revamp of its corporate team. At the time the department appointed four new sector heads to install some urgency among M&A partners, with the firm aiming to increase turnover by 20% over two years after a period in which it was conceded that the team had failed to grow. It was a move rivals dismissed as a power trip for the sector heads and predicted would create needless, artificial barriers.

Given the all-pervading vagueness emanating from Fleet Street following Freshfields' McKinsey-driven banking review and the firm's general reputation for treating practice management as an afterthought, such sentiments were perhaps understandable. But with the firm going on to put in a market-leading M&A performance, it is now a good deal harder to make the broader criticism against the firm stick. While Freshfields is unwilling to give specific figures, partners say it has "far exceeded" the 20% budgeted growth for corporate it set itself at the time. Few would dispute that, as a string of top-tier European mandates have helped the firm top Legal Week's primary adviser rankings for 2005 and 2006, advising last year on 46 of Europe's top 200 deals with a combined value of more than £200bn.

And while the revival in M&A activity since the shake-up was announced has clearly helped, Freshfields' City partners are quite clear that the restructuring was a decisive factor in the success, helping the firm take market share.

Taking responsibility… and rivals' lunch

Partners say the key issue on which the shake-up has scored is improving individual responsibility, thereby sharpening up rainmaking skills after a period in which too many mandates had slipped through the net.

There is plenty of evidence to support that reading. The private equity team led by Ed Braham has won a number of new clients, especially in the Middle East (Dubai International Capital) and private equity sectors (Cinven, CVC and Apax). In addition, the firm's share of the primary mandates on the top 200 deals rose during 2006.

The firm is aware that its current run will be tough to sustain, even if this month's new instruction from BAE will be seen as a step in the right direction (see page 51). As one Freshfields partner puts it: "All our conflicts went right and all our clients won the deals. There was an element of luck."

And rivals are (shock, horror) still unconvinced by the move, which they argue has more to do with the market boom that began at the same time.

This will be properly tested when the slowdown hits top-tier M&A. Charged with maintaining the deal run will be a slightly re-jigged line-up of the four team heads. Alongside Mark Rawlinson, Ed Braham and Will Lawes will be Julian Long, who is replacing Tim Jones. Long, in action this month on the $4bn (£1.96m) sale of Harcourt (see story, right), will oversee the team responsible for technology, media and telecoms, leisure, healthcare and chemicals as Jones is stepping back to focus on his role as UK corporate chief. But the calibre of the sector heads also gives some clues to the secret of Freshfields' improved performance. What looked a bit like paper-shuffling at the time now can be seen in the context of a firm-wide drive to hand its top performers a mandate to knock heads together.

The challenge for the quartet will be to show that the improved performance is due in part to internal changes and not purely booming market conditions. Still, the awkward reality for rivals is that the leaner and meaner Freshfields is making a bloody good fist of it so far.