Kirkland & Ellis was the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) legal adviser in the financial services sector during 2024 by both value and volume, according to the latest legal advisers league table by GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

An analysis of GlobalData’s Deals Database has revealed that Kirkland & Ellis achieved the leading position by advising on 73 deals worth $66.9 billion.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Kirkland & Ellis was the top adviser by volume in 2023. Not only did it retain the leadership position by this metric in 2024 but also outpaced its peers by a significant margin.

“Meanwhile, its ranking by value improved from eighth position in 2023 to the top position in 2024 as it registered more than four-fold jump in the total value of deals advised by it. During 2024, Kirkland & Ellis advised on 14 billion-dollar deals* that also included two mega deals valued more than $10 billion. The involvement in these big-ticket deals helped the Chicago-based law firm register massive jump in terms of value as well as improvement in its ranking by this metric.”

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz occupied the second position in terms of value, by advising on $56 billion worth of deals, followed by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom with $53.7 billion, Cravath Swaine & Moore with $44.5 billion and Sullivan & Cromwell with $40.9 billion.

Meanwhile, Alston & Bird occupied the second position in terms of volume with 33 deals, followed by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom with 29 deals, White & Case with 26 deals and Allen & Overy with 22 deals.

*≥ $1 billion