Kirkland & Ellis was the top M&A legal adviser globally in Q1-Q3 2023, according to GlobalData’s ranking of leading M&A advisers. Analysis by GlobalData reveals that Kirkland & Ellis achieved the leading position by advising on 355 deals worth $264.3bn.
“Kirkland & Ellis was the clear winner outpacing its peers by a significant margin in terms of volume as well as value during Q1-Q3 2023,” said GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose. “It was the only firm to advise on more than 300 deals during Q1-Q3 2023. Moreover, it was also among the only two advisers with total deal value surpassing $200bn during the same period.
“In terms of value ranking, Kirkland & Ellis was followed by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, which occupied the second position by advising on $205.7bn worth of deals.”
“Kirkland & Ellis advised on 61 billion-dollar deals [valued at or above $1bn], which also included five mega deals valued more than $10bn. Involvement in these high-value transactions helped Kirkland & Ellis top the chart by value as well.”
Latham & Watkins came third in terms of value by advising on $191.5bn worth of deals, followed by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz with $169.8bn, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison with $159.3bn.
Measured by number of transactions, CMS came second by advising on 193 deals, followed by White & Case with 187 deals, Latham & Watkins with 163 deals, and Baker McKenzie with 155 deals.
GlobalData’s league tables are based on the real-time tracking of thousands of company websites, advisory firm websites and other reliable sources available on the secondary domain. A dedicated team of analysts monitors all these sources to gather in-depth details for each deal, including adviser names.
To ensure further robustness to the data, the company also seeks submissions of deals from leading advisers.
