DLA Piper, Eversheds, Addleshaw Goddard and Pinsent Masons are well ahead of their national rivals in transactional performance over the last three years, new research has shown.

Bespoke data provided exclusively to Legal Week by mergermarket shows the top four firms are well ahead of their national competitors on European and UK M&A deals since 2004 by both volume and value.

DLA Piper topped the tables, which relate to the three-year period since October 2004, with the transatlantic firm advising on 704 European deals worth A106.8bn (£75bn) in total.

Eversheds took second spot in the European M&A line-up after acting on 487 deals worth E41.1bn (£29bn) while national rival Addleshaw Goddard came third after advising on E24bn (£16.8bn) worth of deals, with Pinsent Masons finishing closely behind, with deals totalling E21.8bn (£15.3bn).

Hammonds, the UK's next largest national firm, came some way behind the top four by value with deals totalling E8.2bn (£5.7bn), and was beaten to fifth place by Osborne Clarke.

Wragge & Co came seventh and Scottish trio Maclay Murray & Spens, McGrigors and Dundas & Wilson made up the final spots in the top 10.