Latham & Watkins, Clifford Chance and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are among the firms best positioned to benefit from an expected surge in private equity spending this year, according to research by Law.com International.

The firms hold relationships in Europe with many of the private equity clients that have the most available capital to spend — particularly Carlyle Group, KKR and CVC Capital Partners — based on bespoke figures from data provider Preqin and interviews with a range of top private equity partners.