Ashurst Morris Crisp, the law firm, has leapt from 20th to fourth in the European league tables for mergers and acquisitions legal advisers.

According to mergermarket.com, the intelligence provider, the firm advised on 44 deals worth a total of €54.7bn ($53bn) in the first six months of 2002. That was less than half the €111.5bn worked on by Linklaters & Alliance at the top of the table, but enough to rank Ashursts above Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.