Freshfields Leads European Dealmaking in Record Year for M&A

U.K.-founded firms Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Herbert Smith Freehills were the top dealmakers in Europe and the Asia-Pacific in 2021, working on a combined $348 billion worth of transactions.

Major deals in Europe included British AstraZeneca plc’s $39 billion acquisition of Boston-based Alexion Pharmaceuticals, advised by Freshfields, and the roughly $44 billion merger of Telefónica’s U.K. subsidiary O2 with Liberty Global’s Virgin Media, advised by Clifford Chance.

“Given the pandemic wasn’t going to go away, investors had to go and get on with life and start deploying that capital,” said Neil Barlow, a mergers and acquisitions partner at Clifford ...