Kirkland & Ellis has emerged as the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) legal adviser for H1 2023 in terms of both value and volume on the latest Legal Advisers League Table by GlobalData, which ranks legal advisers by the respective value and volume of mergers and acquisition (M&A) deals on which they advised.

Based on its Financial Deals Database, the leading data and analytics company has revealed that Kirkland & Ellis achieved the leading position by advising on 290 deals worth $167.5 billion.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Kirkland & Ellis emerged as a clear winner by volume as it was the only firm to advise on more than 200 deals during H1 2023. In fact, Kirkland & Ellis fell short of only 10 deals from touching the 300 deals volume mark thereby outpacing its peers by a significant margin.”

“Moreover, it was also among the only three firms with total deal value surpassing $150 billion in H1 2023. Kirkland & Ellis advised on 40 billion-dollar deals*, which also included three mega deals valued more than $10 billion. Involvement in these high-value transactions helped Kirkland & Ellis top the chart by value as well.”

An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database reveals that Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison occupied the second position in terms of value, by advising on $151.7 billion worth of deals followed by Latham & Watkins with $150.6 billion, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Meagher & Flom with $131.9 billion, and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz with $113.5 billion.

Meanwhile, CMS occupied the second position in terms of volume by advising on 178 deals followed by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati with 170 deals, Latham & Watkins with 155 deals, and White & Case with 133 deals.

*Deals valued more than or equal to $1 billion