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Germany Recommended firms Tier 1 Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Hengeler Mueller Tier 2 Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton Clifford Chance Gleiss Lutz Linklaters Tier 3 Allen & Overy Baker & McKenzie CMS Hasche Sigle Latham & Watkins Shearman & Sterling Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom White & Case It was a record-breaking year for the mergers and acquisitions market in Germany. The scene was set in early 2006 with Bayer's €16 billion acquisition of Schering and culminated with Porsche's €75.7 billion share increase in Volkswagen.

Finland Recommended firms Tier 1 Hannes Snellman Roschier Tier 2 Borenius & Kemppinen Castrén & Snellman White & Case Tier 3 Dittmar & Indrenius Fennica Merilampi Marttila Laitasalo Waselius & Wist Tier 4 Krogerus Attorneys LMR Cross-border expansion has been the talking point of the market of late, with the big firms opening foreign offices to take advantage of their clients' desire to tap the resources of developing markets. Hannes Snellman and Castrén & Snellman have concentrated on Russia, while Roschier has opened offices in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

Canada Recommended firms Tier 1 Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg Goodmans Osler Hoskin & Harcourt Stikeman Elliott Tier 2 Bennett Jones Blake Cassels & Graydon McCarthy Tétrault Ogilvy Renault Torys Tier 3 Borden Ladner Gervais Burnet Duckworth & Palmer Fasken Martineau DuMoulin Fraser Milner Casgrain Macleod Dixon The Canadian mergers and acquisitions market has gone through some interesting transitions in the last year. Firms have seen more foreign acquisitions of Canadian companies and cross-border transactions, particularly in the mining sector, which has previously seen an ebb and flow. One partner expressed concern: "Canada is being hollowed out."

Austria Recommended firms Tier 1 Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Schönherr Wolf Theiss Tier 2 Binder Grösswang Cerha Hempel Spiegelfeld Hlawati Dorda Brugger Jordis Tier 3 CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz Fiebinger Polak Leon & Partner Graf & Pitkowitz The arrival of big private-equity funds in Austria was announced with a bang in 2005. European Directories, a Macquarie-led consortium, bought out the Yellow Brick Road telephone directories business from 3i Group and Veronis Suhler Stevenson for €1.83 billion. Since then private-equity activity has risen and risen, with funds happy to acquire stakes in companies where there is seemingly no potential. But while there have been a large number of small private-equity deals, big-hitting private-equity houses often lament that too few prime targets appear on the market.

International firms that have been in Japan since 1987 are now reaping the rewards

The winners in the M&A boom were the firms with connections

To download a full copy of IFLR's Private equity and venture capital review, please click here

The recently enacted Legislative Decree 164 of September 17 2007 has implemented in Italy the EU Directive 2004/39/EC, generally referred to as Mifid (Markets in financial instruments directive). Legislative Decree 164 has introduced several substantial amendments to the Italian Financial Act, stating that Consob, the Italian regulatory authority of the financial markets, must adopt detailed rules in relation to it. Hence, Consob has adopted the new regulations 16190 and 16191 of November 2 2007 regarding intermediaries and financial markets respectively. They have repealed the former regulations on the same subjects.

The expansion strategies of Baker & McKenzie, Squire Sanders & Dempsey and Latham & Watkins compared

Turkey Recommended firms Tier 1 Derman Düren Akol Avukatlik Burosu Hergüner Bilgen Özeke Paksoy & Co Pekin & Pekin Tier 2 Bircanoglu Birsel Law Offices Caga & Caga Cakmak Avukatlik Bürosu Pekin & Bayar Taboglu Ates & Demirhan Tier 3 ECE Guner Unlu Law Offices Esin Lokmanhekim Ictem Gürkaynak M Fadlullah Cerrahoglu Law Offices "A rising tide raises the boats" is the phrase a partner used to describe the present Turkish legal market. The economy is growing fast, and domestic companies and foreign investors are realising the potential the country has to offer.