"If you want to get out at the top with people wanting more, the timing of my departure couldn't have been better," says former Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer partner Mark Rawlinson of his move earlier this week to Morgan Stanley.

He is not exaggerating. During the past year or so, Rawlinson has worked on some of the biggest deals in the UK market, including AB InBev's mega-merger with SABMiller, BG Group's takeover by Royal Dutch Shell and the London Stock Exchange Group's proposed merger with Germany's Deutsche Boerse. Not a bad haul for a man who admits he has asked Freshfields for the last two years if the firm would like him to retire, preferring not to outstay his welcome.