Paul Hastings and TriLegal have topped the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) legal advisers rankings for the first quarter of 2025 in the Asia-Pacific region, based on data from GlobalData’s latest legal advisers league table.
According to GlobalData’s Deals Database, Paul Hastings secured the top position by deal value, advising on transactions worth a total of $22.8bn.
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In terms of deal volume, TriLegal led the rankings, having advised on 18 deals during the period.
King & Wood Mallesons ranked second by deal value, advising on $9bn worth of transactions. It was followed by Morrison & Foerster with $6.6bn, Clayton UTZ with $5.3bn, and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas with $2.7bn.
For deal volume, AZB & Partners took the second position with 15 deals. Khaitan & Co followed with 11 deals, J Sagar Associates with seven, and Mori Hamada & Matsumoto with six.
GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “Paul Hastings emerged as the clear winner by value in Q1 2025 outperforming its peers by a significant margin. It was the only adviser to surpass $20 billion in total deal value during the quarter, whereas none of the other advisers could even touch $10 billion mark.
“Paul Hastings secured the top spot by deal value, largely due to its key role in the $22.8 billion acquisition of a majority stake in ports owned by CK Hutchison Holdings and Panama Ports by a consortium of investors.
“Meanwhile, TriLegal was the top adviser by volume in Q1 2024 and managed to retain its leadership position by this metric in Q1 2025 as well.”
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.
