Freshfields kept Linklaters & Alliance off the top spot in the 2001 mergers and acquisitions legal advisers league tables by value, according to Mergermarket the financial data provider.

Linklaters, which has long enjoyed success in the European tables, worked on 45 more deals than Freshfields, but the deals tended to be smaller, which held it back. One client in particular, UK-based Vodafone, boosted Linklaters' ranking as it provided the firm with €35bn (€31bn) worth of M&A mandates for the year. Clifford Chance ranks third, with Slaughter & May fourth and Sullivan & Cromwell fifth.