Kirkland & Ellis has emerged as the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) legal adviser in H1 2025 in terms of both value and volume on the latest Legal Advisers League Table by GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database reveals that Kirkland & Ellis achieved the leading position by advising on 225 deals worth $190.3 billion.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Despite registering decline in deal volume as well as value during H1 2025 compared to H1 2024, Kirkland & Ellis not only managed to lead but also outpaced its peers by a significant margin across both the metrics. In fact, it was the only adviser that managed to advice on more than 200 deals during H1 2025 and just fell little short of hitting $200 billion mark in total deal value.

“During H1 2025, Kirkland & Ellis advised on 35 billion-dollar deals*, which also included five mega deals valued more than $10 billion. Involvement in these big-ticket deals helped Kirkland & Ellis to top the chart by value.”

An analysis of GlobalData’s Deals Database reveals that Latham & Watkins occupied the second position in terms of value, by advising on $ 155.2 billion worth of deals followed by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz with $140.1 billion, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom with $131.1 billion, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison with $127 billion.

Meanwhile, CMS occupied the second position in terms of volume by advising on 146 deals followed by Latham & Watkins with 137 deals, White & Case with 116 deals, and A&O Shearman with 95 deals.

*Deals valued more than or equal to $1 billion