Alston & Bird and Kirkland & Ellis were the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) legal advisers in oil and gas sector for Q1-Q3 2020 by value and volume, respectively. A total of 1,115 M&A deals were announced in oil and gas sector during the period, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

According to GlobalData’s M&A report, ‘Global and Oil & Gas M&A Report Legal Adviser League Tables Q1-Q3 2020’, there was a 21.1% decrease over 1,414 deals that were announced during Q1–Q3 2019. Deal value also decreased by 45.1% from $332bn in Q1–Q3 2019 to $182bn in Q1–Q3 2020.

In GlobalData’s ranking, Alston & Bird bagged top spot in terms of deal value by advising on three deals worth $34bn, which was the highest value among all the advisers. Meanwhile, Kirkland & Ellis led by volume, having advised on 28 deals worth $20.7bn.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Kirkland & Ellis was the only adviser to advise on more than 20 deals, thereby outpacing its peers by a great margin in terms of volume. However, it lost the top position by value to Alston & Bird, which advised on only three deals but these were ‘high-value transactions’.

“Alston & Bird managed to advise on two megadeals worth more than $10bn, while Kirkland & Ellis advised on five deals worth greater than or equal to $1bn but didn’t land any mega deals.”

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett occupied the second position by value with four deals worth $30.1bn, followed by Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz with two deals worth $22.4bn and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld with four deals worth $21.3bn.

Baker Botts occupied the second position by volume with 19 deals worth $5.5bn, followed by Vinson & Elkins with 14 deals worth $15.5bn and Latham & Watkins with 11 deals worth $8bn.