Linklaters crowned king legal dealmaker in H1

* Linklaters pips Skadden as top legal M&A advisor in H1

* Freshfields leaps to third place from 10th with 104 deals

* Allens Arthur Robinson propelled into top four

By Kirstin Ridley

LONDON, July 2 (Reuters) - Linklaters, one of the "magic
circle" of leading British law firms, has leapfrogged U.S. rival
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom to take the top seat at the
global table of M&A legal advisers in the first half of 2009.

However, as a freeze on credit unprecedented in a generation
sent the world spinning into deep recession and forced lawyers
to cut fees and jobs, the number of global deals plunged by 40
percent in the first six months of this year.

Mining and financial services deals helped Linklaters, which
ranked fourth in the same period of 2008, to win 99 deals valued
at almost $230 billion -- a 24 percent slice of the $941 billion
M&A pie, according to Thomson Reuters data released on Thursday.

Miner Rio Tinto (RIO.L) (RIO.AX) and BHP Billiton's (BLT.L)
BHP.AS $58 billion joint venture, Xstrata Plc's (XTA.L)
planned purchase of Anglo American (AAL.L) and the British
government's acquisition of stakes in Lloyds Banking Group
(LLOY.L) and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) all helped underpin
Linklaters' position.

Skadden, meanwhile, is working on 68 deals worth just under
$193 billion -- a far cry from transactions worth $300 billion
which it clinched in the first six months of last year, crowning
it king of legal dealmakers in that period.

The figures come as many U.S. and UK law firms take drastic
measures to weather a downturn that has forced some to fire
large numbers of senior lawyers for the first time in their
history.

On Wednesday, Linklaters rival Clifford Chance said profit
per equity partner plunged 37 percent in the year ended April 30
to 733,000 pounds, in what had been a "very challenging" year.

LEGAL CHALLENGE

"Do you have to work harder to get every deal through the
door? Of course you do," David Barnes, global head of corporate
at Linklaters, told Reuters.

However, he predicted long-term demand for legal work,
especially in financial services, because of the market meltdown
and the inevitable structural changes; and for energy, due to a
shortage of commodities as China and India become ever larger
consumers.

"There are opportunistic deals to be done, synergies to be
achieved to save costs while exploring further afield for
ever-scarcer resources," Barnes said.

"We don't think we see any return to the good old days of
2007, when everybody was busy without really trying, for a
number of years... (But) we see the energy, mining and
infrastructure cluster, together with financial services, as
(remaining) the busiest areas."

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, one of Linklaters' magic
circle rivals, is working on the most deals to date -- 104 --
which helped push it into third place from 10th, with a 20.4
percent market share.

Just seven lucrative deals in the United States and 21 in
Asia Pacific helped propel Allens Arthur Robinson, a legal firm
in Asia, into fourth place from 29th, with a market share of
19.5 percent of global M&A transactions. The value of deals on
its books has surged to around $184 billion from $47.5 billion.

In spite of the slump in mergers and acquisitions, legal
firms have found rich pickings on a raft of restructuring deals
as companies revamp to survive. Just four deals each helped push
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and Salans into 23rd and 24th
place, respectively, from 118th and 145th.

Here is a table of worldwide rankings in H1, 2009:

Rank value Mkt No
Legal advisor US $m Rank share deals
Linklaters 229,596.4 1 24.4 99
Skadden, Arps 192,930.2 2 20.5 68
Freshfields 191,843.0 3 20.4 104
Allens Arthur Robinson 183,774.5 4 19.5 27
Sullivan & Cromwell 150,926.3 5 16.0 40
Wachtell Lipton 146,611.4 6 15.6 25
Simpson Thacher 115,898.6 7 12.3 49
Clifford Chance 112,952.4 8 12.0 67
Shearman & Sterling 105,891.8 9 11.3 72
Paul, Weiss 97,220.5 10 10.3 24
(Editing by Simon Jessop)