Kirkland & Ellis has secured the top spot in the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) legal adviser for 2024 in the financial services sector, according to the latest league table from GlobalData, a data and analytics firm.
An analysis of GlobalData’s Deals Database showed that Kirkland & Ellis secured the top position by advising on 73 deals, which cumulatively are valued at $66.9bn.
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz claimed the second position in terms of deal value, having advised on transactions worth a total of $56bn.
It was closely followed by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, which advised on deals amounting to $53.7bn. Cravath Swaine & Moore, and Sullivan & Cromwell also featured in the rankings, with deal values of $44.5bn and $40.9bn, respectively.
GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “Kirkland & Ellis was the top adviser by volume in 2023. Not only did it retain the leadership position by this metric in 2024 but also outpaced its peers by a significant margin.
“Meanwhile, its ranking by value improved from eighth position in 2023 to the top position in 2024 as it registered more than four-fold jump in the total value of deals advised by it.
“During 2024, Kirkland & Ellis advised on $14bn deals that also included two mega deals valued more than $10bn. The involvement in these big-ticket deals helped the Chicago-based law firm register massive jump in terms of value as well as improvement in its ranking by this metric.”
In terms of deal volume, Alston & Bird took the second place with 33 deals. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom followed with 29 deals, while White & Case advised on 26 deals. Allen & Overy rounded out the top five with 22 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.
