Fieldfisher has made the biggest gain in the AIM adviser rankings during the last quarter, adding seven new clients to rise five places up the table.

Gowling WLG and Pinsent Masons have retained their status as the top two firms by AIM-listed clients, with the pair now level on 50 clients apiece after seeing their totals drop by one and two respectively during the quarter.

Fieldfisher has risen to sixth place after boosting its AIM-listed client roster from 27 and 34, a result corporate partner Anthony Brockbank attributed in part to the firm's sector focus.

"We've always had a significant standing in the marketplace on the advisory side, but we're now beginning to focus more on the company aspect," said Brockbank.

The firm recently advised on a $575m acquisition of US assets by AIM-listed Diversified Gas & Oil – a deal described as the largest-ever AIM oil and gas acquisition – and Brockbank highlighted the energy sector as being a key contributor to the firm's recent AIM market success, as well as healthcare, where Fieldfisher is "looking to make a push".

Pinsents, a consistently strong AIM performer, has remained top of the rankings alongside Gowling WLG, with corporate partner Jon Harris citing the firm's traditional focus on being "empathetic, warm and relationship-focused".

"It's a very competitive market", he said. "We've been very focused on project management and doing what the client wants, which we've been able to achieve through our connections."

CMS, which recently completed its financial year after its merger with Nabarro and Olswang, placed third in the rankings after dropping one client to 39. Equity capital markets head Alasdair Steele pointed to the firm's pre-merger focus on the company-side issuer practice, as well as maintaining its bank-side specialism, but suggested that the introduction of Nabarro's issuer focus had seen the firm focus more on AIM-listed clients.

"We're continuing to grow our practice," he said, adding: "We want to be number one, of course, and also grow our main market as well as our AIM practices too. Issuers provide us with opportunities for other work in M&A as well as other areas. And we'd look to focus on the small-mid cap space – so that's the top of the AIM, bottom of the main market."

Recent additions to CMS's roster of capital markets clients include AIM-listed payments operator SafeCharge and trade exhibition organiser ITE Group, which sits on the main market.

The Brexit question

Pinsents' Harris played down the possible ill-effects of Brexit, saying that the firm is "not seeing Brexit as a big problem". He added: "What we might see is clients building a secondary fundraiser – a war chest – a good store of cash in the bank. Clients may start recognising the need to do a secondary fundraiser with maximum efficiency and minimum fuss.

"Clients are always cautious about legal expenses, but we might see them being a bit more sensible," he added.

Steele echoed this perspective. "I'm pretty sanguine about [Brexit]," he said. "Since 2008, businesses have been operating in a new uncertain world. We can see the bumps, but these will likely be part of a temporary blip. It's part and parcel of the equity capital markets business. We always have bumps."

However, he accepted there will be complexities to navigate: "The question is – where does the client see the riskier issues? Banks too will be managing these risks. Issuers will be asking a lot more questions of banks before they embark on a relatively expensive process. Clients will be asking themselves: 'Should we invest the time and expense?'"

While sharing Harris and Steele's overall uncertainty, Brockbank expects a quieter 2019 – in Q1 especially – likening the immediate Brexit aftermath to post-referendum conditions: "Following the vote, things were pretty quiet. There was a sort of paralysis in the market, and we may see something similar."