Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and Slaughter and May have retained their leading positions as London's top mergers and acquisitions legal practices, according to the latest Legal 500 survey of UK law firms.

Freshfields, whose London M&A team is led by Tim Jones, acted for Amersham, the UK biosciences firm, on its £5.7bn (€8.36bn) disposal to General Electric.