Simpson Thacher & Bartlett has topped Mergermarket's global M&A rankings by value for the first quarter of 2014 which saw total deal value soar by 33.2% compared with the same quarter in 2013.

Figures from Legal Week's exclusive data provider Mergermarket show that the New York firm advised on 33 deals worth $142bn (£85.5bn) in the first three months of this year – significantly up on Q1 last year when the firm advised on 16 deals worth $30.6bn (£18.4bn) to place 19th. Its transaction haul included a role on the quarter's second largest deal – Actavis' bid for Forest Laboratories.

Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom ranks second in the tables after logging deals worth a combined $137bn (£82.5bn) for the first three months, with its position boosted by a role on one of the largest announced global deals of the quarter: the proposed $68.5bn (£41.2bn) merger between US cable operators Comcast and Time Warner Cable. Simpson Thacher also dominated the European rankings by deal value, advising on 16 deals worth $61.6bn (£37bn).

Other strong performers for the first quarter in Europe include DLA Piper, which led the rankings for deals by volume with a count of 43, and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. The magic circle firm ranked second in the tables for deal value which amounted to $60.9bn (£36.7bn). It is also the highest placed UK firm in the global value rankings, coming in at number eight, ahead of Clifford Chance and Linklaters as the only two UK firms in the top 15 by global value.

Overall, Q1 2014 was the most active start to a year since 2011, with deal value hitting $599.1bn (£361bn) compared with $449.6bn during the same period in 2013. It is also up by 5.7% on Q4 last year, which saw deals valued at $566.6bn (£341bn).

The three-month period saw an uptick in deal flow across key continents, with US and Europe this year seeing 55.9% and 19.2% increases in value compared with Q1 2013.

Linklaters global head of corporate Jeremy Parr (pictured) said: "We are gradually seeing improving deal flows and the type of deal activity is less driven by stress situations which suggests a return to stability. The pace of economic recovery has been slower in the EU than the US."

Deal activity has also grown stronger in the Asia-Pacific market, with Q1 values at their highest since 2001. The trend data values deals in the region at $101.6bn (£61.2bn), increasing by 36.3% on last year's equivalent. However, the value was down 14.5% on the last quarter of 2013.

Clifford Chance (CC) and King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) led the rankings for Asia-Pacific deals by value and volume respectively, with a total deal value of $16.7bn (£10.1bn) for the magic circle firm and deal count of 21 for KWM.

CC London corporate partner Brendan Moylan said: "The deals pipeline has become quite promising. Deal flow has increased in the past month or so and there is a range of new deals on people's desks.

"We've had a good start to the year and are keeping our fingers crossed that we will be saying similar things in the next quarter."

Meanwhile, Freshfields was the highest-ranked UK M&A adviser by deal value after advising on 13 deals in the UK worth $18bn (£10bn). The firm was also the top-ranked UK law firm globally by value, ranked in eighth place.

Globally while deal values were significantly up, volumes were down – dropping from 3,297 to 3,197, with a significant rise in US activity countered by drops in European and UK activity.

Hogan Lovells corporate partner Guy Potel said: "The UK has continued to be subdued but there is activity in certain sectors – energy and infrastructure, TMT and the financial institutions group are all holding up well.

"To launch an acquisition strategy you want to be confident that recovery is here to stay – I think in the next six months we will see this in the UK and EU. We have a strong pipeline of work from the US and Asia has also been recovering stronger and for longer than the UK."

• Related: Recovery in question as 2013 sees lowest UK M&A deal value for 12 years