Mergermarket has announced the M&A results for the first half of 2009. And while the overall picture is pretty gloomy – total deal volume was down 46% on the same period last year – the report says that activity is now steady and looks set to improve.

In terms of the number of deals completed worldwide, UK firms have done pretty well. Jones Day may have come top with 101 deals, but Linklaters were in second place with 86 deals. And as their deals were valued at $85 billion compared to just $12 billion for Jones Day, they're probably not losing much sleep on Silk Street.

Other UK firms to make the top 20 were DLA Piper (3rd place), Freshfields (4), Clifford Chance (6), Allen & Overy (7), CMS Cameron McKenna (12) and Herbert Smith (16).

A Linklaters lawyer yesterday

However, when it comes to the value of deals done, the US firms wipe the board, with just three UK firms in the top 20: Clifford Chance (4th place), Freshfields (6) and Linklaters (13 – down from last year’s top position).

 

Linklaters also held onto first place in the European volume table for the second year running, although was pipped by Freshfields to second place in the value table. Other firms to make the European lists were Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy, Slaughter and May, DLA Piper, CMS Cameron McKenna, Herbert Smith, Lovells and Ashurst.

 

In one final piece of good news, the report pointed out that insolvency deals had gone up by 148%. Well, every cloud…