Kirkland & Ellis has emerged as the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) legal adviser for 2023 in terms of both value and volume on the latest Legal Advisers League Table by GlobalData, which ranks legal advisers by the value and volume of M&A deals on which they advised.

Based on its Financial Deals Database, the leading data and analytics company reveals that Kirkland & Ellis achieved the leading position by advising on 488 deals worth $354.4 billion.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Kirkland & Ellis was the clear winner, outpacing its peers by a significant margin in 2023. It was the only firm to advise on more than 400 deals in 2023 and fell short of only 12 deals to hit the 500 deals volume mark. Moreover, it was also the only adviser with total deal value surpassing $300 billion during the year.

“Interestingly, Kirkland & Ellis, akin to most of its peers, witnessed a decline in deals volume in 2023 compared to 2022 but registered a massive jump in total deal value driven by its involvement in several high-value transactions. It advised on 79 billion-dollar deals*, which also included seven mega deals valued more than $10 billion.”

An analysis of GlobalData’s Deals Database reveals that Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz occupied the second position in terms of value, by advising on $287.4 billion worth of deals, followed by Latham & Watkins with $274.1 billion, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom with $273.8 billion, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison with $273 billion.

Meanwhile, CMS occupied the second position in terms of volume by advising on 280 deals, followed by White & Case with 250 deals, Baker McKenzie with 249 deals, and Latham & Watkins with 222 deals.

*Deals valued more than or equal to $1 billion