Clifford Chance (CC) Duesseldorf competition partner Marc Besen and Linklaters UK private equity partner Richard Youle have been named as Europe's most active deal-doers for 2007, according to Mergermarket.

Individual rankings produced for Legal Week show Besen and Youle have both advised on 15 M&A deals over the calendar year, with both acting on deals worth a combined value of slightly less than €5bn (£3.59bn).

Also performing well in the volume rankings was Italian practice Chiomenti, which was the only firm other than CC to have two partners placed. Michele Carpinelli advised on 14 deals worth a total of €32.5bn (£23.36bn), while fellow corporate partner Carlo Croff advised on 12 deals worth €8.77bn (£6.31bn).