Bumper year for corporate lawyers

Last year was one to forget for exporters and airline engineers but the news that corporate lawyers made a killing must be some consolation ... right?

High-value deals in such sectors as food and beverage, forestry and media had law firm Buddle Findlay calling it a "bumper year".

Chairman Sarah Roberts said that in the past 12 months hers and most other major law firms had participated in several big deals.

Buddle Findlay alone handled merger-and-acquisition deals valued at more than $5 billion.

"One of the more surprising features was the amount of activity in the food and beverage sector - Dairy Foods, Tegel, Montana, Griffins, Oyster Bay, Goodman Fielder and Progressive Enterprises have all been or are in play in some shape or form," said Roberts.

The country's total merger and acquisition activity was worth $19.11 billion last year. That was a 4.6 per cent increase on the year before, according to a report by Thomson Financial.