Despite all the turbulence, 2008 brought good results to Brazilian law offices in merger and acquisition (M&A) operations. A survey carried out by Mergermarket showed the presence of two Brazilian law firms among the ten major firms in South and Central America, as regards financial volume of operations.

Law office Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr. and Quiroga Attorneys participated as legal advisor to five M&A operations, whose total transacted value was in excess of US$ 6.5 billion. A notable fact was the jump made by the firm from São Paulo in a single year, climbing from 57th to 5th place.

Right behind them was Machado, Meyer, Sendacz and Opice Attorneys, who advised two operations, for a total of US$ 6.1 billion. Last year, the firm was in 42nd place. First place went to American firm Shearman & Sterling, whose services were present in six transactions that moved US$ 13 billion.

When the criterion is the number of operations, another three Brazilian firms make it in to the top ten: Tozzini, Freire, Teixeira and Silva Attorneys (3rd place, with six operations), Pinheiro Neto Attorneys (5th place, with six operations, but a smaller volume), and Barbosa, Müssnich & Aragão Attorneys (7th place, with five transactions), as well as Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr., and Quiroga, who are in sixth place with their five operations.

In the world ranking, Linklaters wins the gold medal, with 186 transactions involving figures above US$ 570 billion.