Kirkland & Ellis stands atop the M&A legal advisory league table for the first half of 2025
In the dynamic world of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), the legal landscape has seen some significant shifts during the first half of 2025. According to GlobalData's latest league tables, Kirkland & Ellis has taken the lead as the top legal adviser by both deal volume and value.
The Chicago-based law firm outpaced its peers by a significant margin, with a total of 225 transactions amounting to a staggering $190.3bn in value. This impressive performance secured Kirkland & Ellis the number one spot, pushing White & Case into fourth place with 116 transactions. Latham & Watkins, on the other hand, held the second spot in deal volume with 137 transactions, but was surpassed by Latham & Watkins in terms of value, with advisory on deals worth $155.2bn.
Meanwhile, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz ranked third in M&A advisory by value, with a total of $140.1bn in deal value. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom followed closely behind with $131.1bn in M&A advisory value. A&O Shearman rounded out the top six with 95 transactions.
GlobalData's league tables are based on real-time tracking of thousands of company and advisory firm websites, as well as gathering in-depth details for each deal, including adviser names, from reliable sources available on the secondary domain. The search results do not provide specific key findings from GlobalData's legal adviser ranking in M&A by value and volume for the first half of 2025. However, it is worth noting that Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison were the top legal advisers by value and volume, respectively, in the construction sector during the first quarter of 2025.
In the APAC region, Evercore and UBS were the top M&A financial advisers by value and volume, respectively. However, no specific legal adviser ranking was mentioned for this region. For a comprehensive understanding of the legal adviser rankings across all sectors for the first half of 2025, direct access to GlobalData's reports or databases would be necessary.
GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose commented on Kirkland & Ellis's impressive performance, stating, "Kirkland & Ellis has outpaced its peers by a significant margin in both deal volume and value during H1 2025."
[1] Source: GlobalData press release, Q1 2025 [3] Source: GlobalData press release, H1 2025 (APAC region)
Investing in M&A deals advised by Kirkland & Ellis in 2025's first half could potentially yield high returns given their leading position by both deal volume and value. Moreover, this digital transformation in the finance sector, assisted by AI-driven legal advice, could offer lucrative business opportunities for those investing wisely.
