Pinsent Masons has lost the top spot for its number of FTSE AIM 100 clients for this quarter, with Gowling WLG replacing the firm in pole position.

Data from Adviser Rankings for Q2 2019 shows that Pinsents' FTSE AIM 100 client total has dropped by two this quarter, taking its total to seven and pushing it into joint second place with CMS.

Gowling, meanwhile, has moved up from joint third place in the table last quarter to take first place with eight clients.

Gowling corporate head Sunil Kakkad said: "While we continue to have a range of clients, the focus over the last six months has been very much around the larger market-cap companies on AIM and making some headway using our strength and expertise on the AIM market."

Bird & Bird made the most gains in the table, jumping five places up the rankings to take joint fourth place with six clients. It shares the position with Carey Olsen and Norton Rose Fulbright.

Taylor Wessing was the only new entrant to the rankings for the three months to April 2019, with three clients, putting it into a six-way tie for 15th place.

DLA Piper EMEA capital markets head Alex Tamlyn said: "The backdrop to what's happened in the last 12 months is that there's been a huge fall off in the number of IPOs. It's due to a combination of geopolitical and macroeconomic activity, of which Brexit is a feature.

"Personally, I don't have any doubts about London continuing to be a reputable centre for companies wanting to undertake IPOs, but we are seeing a short-term variance in the number of companies wanting to IPO in all markets, not just London."

Pinsents retained first place for the total number of AIM clients with 53, one less than last quarter, with Gowling coming in second place with 46 clients, also one less than last quarter.

Pinsents corporate partner Jon Harris said: "In terms of key trends, companies are cautious about listing and IPOs are expensive. There are quite a few IPOs that are being postponed. If you're an AIM lawyer like me, that's not good for your business.

"On the other hand, we've got a good pipeline… There are lots of companies that still looking to list at some point and we're going to do our best for them."

Fieldfisher, meanwhile, has continued to move up the rankings for its total number of AIM clients and has risen one place this quarter to third position.

Though it did not pick up any new clients this quarter, last quarter Fieldfisher gained seven new clients, taking its total to 37.

DLA Piper took the top spot for the number of FTSE 100 AIM clients by market cap, with a value of £6.87 billion – a lower value than last quarter's value of £7 billion that saw the firm take second place in the rankings behind Gowling WLG. This quarter, Gowling WLG's £5.64 billion client market-cap total put it into third place.