Prudential. Credit: Bloomberg.

White & Case and Slaughter and May have been handed mandates as a New York-based activist investor calls for a further break-up of insurance giant Prudential's global operations.

New York hedge fund Third Point, which has invested $2 billion in Prudential, has demanded in a letter to the company's board that it split its U.S. life insurance business, Jackson, from its profitable Asian arm, and cease running both arms out of one holding company based in the U.K.

The demands come just several months after Prudential span out its European insurance and asset management businesses into a new company called M&G.

The move by Third Point is the latest high-profile example of increased influence of investor activism – a staple in the U.S. M&A market – in the U.K. and Europe.

White & Case is fielding a London-based team to advise Third Point, with partners Patrick Sarch and Tom Matthews leading.

Slaughter and May corporate partners Roland Turnill and David Watkins are leading for longtime client Prudential regarding Third Point's letter.

In September, documents about Prudential's initial de-merger process showed that Magic Circle firms Slaughters, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Linklaters took home a portion of the company's £75 million handed out in legal and financial advisers fees.