Kirkland & Ellis has emerged as the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) legal adviser during Q1-Q3 2025 in terms of both value and volume in the latest Legal Advisers League Table by GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database reveals that Kirkland & Ellis achieved the leading position by advising on 384 deals worth $414.1 billion.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Kirkland & Ellis was also the top adviser during Q1-Q3 2024 by both value and volume. The Chicago-based law firm outpaced its peers by a significant margin in terms of volume. In fact, it was the only adviser that managed to advise on more than 300 deals during Q1-Q3 2025.

“Kirkland & Ellis was also involved in several big-ticket deals, which helped it top the table by value. It advised on 69 billion-dollar deals*, which also included 10 mega deals valued more than $10 billion.”

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz occupied the second position in terms of value, by advising on $400.4 billion worth of deals followed by Latham & Watkins with $368.3 billion, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom with $329.8 billion and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison with $279.3 billion.

Meanwhile, Latham & Watkins occupied the second position in terms of volume by advising on 241 deals followed by CMS with 221 deals, White & Case with 191 deals, and A&O Shearman with 144 deals.

*Deals valued ≥ $1 billion