IFLR 1000
The Guide to the World's Leading Financial Law Firms

Macfarlanes has a very strong presence before the UK's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) where between 2010 - 2011 it won some very notable cases. The firm is also involved in high profile work before the Commission.

On the European front, the firm advised Air Liquid on a complex case involving a joint venture for a business in carbon dioxide neutralising. The firm was engaged by a US advertising agency in the ECC investigation in Google's alleged abuse of dominance.

The firm was also involved advising clients in European cartel investigations in the food industry.

Before the OFT, the firm won a coup for Pineweed Laboratories when the OFT levied a £10 million abuse of dominance fine on Reckitt Benckiser, the first for since 2003, when Reckitt admitted liability for blocking the entry of generic products. Other high profile cases saw the firm advise Kingspan and defend clients in a vehicle manufacturer price fixing investigation.

The key figure at Macfarlanes is Robert Boyle who leads the department and had a hand in all the firm's major work last year. The firm generally acts on the company side in most transactions with deals born from its broad corporate client base.

One of the largest deals the team worked on was the £700 million IPO of Vallar on the LSE in July 2010. The investment company has interests in the mining sector.

Boyle was also active as the team acted for LXB Retail Properties on a £40 million share placement and e2v Technologies on its share placement and £45 million rights issue in January 2011.

One notable bank side deal saw the team act for JPMorgan Securities on the rights issue and warrants placing of the Imperial Innovations Group.

The Macfarlanes banking department led by Julian Howard draws on the strength of its UK corporate client base and is thus often mandated on the company side.

An example of this saw lead partner Howard advise bar chain JD Wetherspoon on £530 million of corporate facilities. Another example saw Bronwen Jones act for iSOFT on its £160 million debt restructuring.

On the acquisition finance front, this time acting for the banks, the team led by Richard Rogerson acted for Haymarket Financial, Macquarie Bank and the Lloyds Banking Group on the financing of HG Capital's buy out of the JLA Group.

Macfarlanes' focus lies on domestic transactions arising from its strong UK corporate client base. An example of this and one of the firm's largest mandates last year saw a team led by Graham Gibb and Charles Martin acting for Brit Insurance Holdings on the £1.3 billion cash offer by Apollo Management and CVC Capital Partners.

Clients appreciated the amount of partner time they received and also pointed out that rate wise the firm is an economical choice: "They are slightly less expensive than others, it's the efficiency with which they staff a particular job," says one client who worked with Graham Gibb. "The [partner] relationship is always important, you need to trust them and I trust Graham."

Another significant deal, led by Luke Powell saw the team act for ICAP on its €122 million offer for TriOptima, a financial technology company operating in the OTC derivatives space. The deal was completed under Swedish law.

Also in the financial trading space the team acted for BATS Global Markets on its acquisition of Chi-X Europe a move that created one of the largest pan-European trading platforms.

Highlighting its domestic strength the team also advised Whitbread on its acquisition of Coffeeheaven.

Macfarlanes is often compared to Slaughter and May (not a bad comparison by any means) both in terms of its structure and its decision not to go down the road of broad international expansion.

There is no doubting the quality of the firm's UK corporate base, but some peers have suggested that in areas like private equity, the firm may soon have to make a decision whether to embrace the international model or instead accept a position focusing largely on domestic matters. "They've taken the decision not to go global, but private equity is becoming more and more global every day," says one rival.

On the funds side, for which the firm is best known, last year the team acted for Azinin capital on its €100 million Azini 2 fund. The team also acted for Haymarket Capital on its fundraising alongside the Australian Future Fund and other investors which created a new lending business backed by Towerbrook. Stephen Sims meanwhile acted for Montagu Private Equity on the €2.5 billion fundraising for its fourth fund.

On the transactional side, partner Ian Martin was busy last year acting alongside Simon Perry for TA Associates on the acquisition of Cath Kidston and Graphite Capital Partners on the £45 million management buy out of Teaching Personnel.

Matthew Blows meanwhile acted for new client JC Flowers on its investment in the Kent Reliance Building Society, which created a new industrial and provident society.

Lead partner Charles Meek also acted for Duke Street Capital on the secondary buy out of Wagamama.