Finalists: Dechert; Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr (highly commended).

Skadden's efforts to resolve competition concerns in one of the largest M&A deals on record helped it scoop the antitrust team of the year prize.

The firm helped its client DuPont successfully navigate the antitrust aspects of its $130bn mega-merger with Dow, which had been flagged by the US Department of Justice, European Commission and other regulators for potentially stifling competition and innovation in the herbicides, insecticides and crop protection markets.

As global antitrust counsel, Skadden worked closely with DuPont's executive team through a gruelling 20-month-long sequence of depositions, Congressional hearings and meetings with regulators. It also advised on a novel divestiture strategy (an asset swap rather than a traditional asset sale that saw DuPont offload portions of its crop protections business to FMC Corporation in exchange for FMC's health and nutrition business). And it coordinated with local counsel worldwide to ensure the merger was approved in more than 20 jurisdictions, potentially serving as a template for other megadeals facing antitrust scrutiny.

"The various jurisdictional complexities of closing this type of transaction cannot be understated. It's a heck of a deal to pull off as lead counsel and one in which career-long reputations are made," a judge said.

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