Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Kirkland & Ellis were the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) legal advisers by value and volume, respectively, in North America for the first quarter (Q1) of 2024, according to GlobalData's latest legal advisers league table.
GlobalData's Deals Database showed that Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom secured the top position by value, advising on deals worth $115.9bn.
In terms of deal volume, Kirkland & Ellis topped the ranking list by advising on 101 M&A deals in North America in Q1 2024.
GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “Kirkland & Ellis was the clear winner in terms of volume as it was the only adviser to hit the triple-digit deal volume during Q1 2024.
“Interestingly, it was the top adviser by volume in Q1 2023 as well. Apart from leading by volume, Kirkland & Ellis occupied the fifth position by value in Q1 2024.
“Meanwhile, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, which occupied the second position by value in Q1 2023, went ahead to top the chart by this metric in Q1 2024 due to its involvement in big-ticket deals.
“It is noteworthy that the average size of deals advised by the company jumped from $2.4bn in Q1 2023 to $5.3bn in Q1 2024.”
In terms of value, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz occupied the second position by advising on deals amounting to $109.5bn.
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison advised on $104.2bn worth of deals, while the deals advised by Cravath Swaine & Moore were worth $73.8bn in total.
Kirkland & Ellis advised on deals valued at $60.9bn, securing fifth place in the value category.
In terms of deal volume, Latham & Watkins occupied the second place, with 33 M&A deals in North America in Q1 2024.
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher held third place with 32 deals while Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Jones Day each advised on 26 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.
