Kirkland & Ellis was the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) legal adviser in North America in 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 472 deals worth $343.9 billion in the region.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Kirkland & Ellis was the top adviser in 2023 in terms of both value and volume and also managed its leadership position in 2024 as well. It outpaced its peers by a significant margin in terms of deal volume and was just a little short of hitting the 500-deal volume mark in the North American region.

“Several of the deals advised by Kirkland & Ellis in 2024 were big-ticket deals, and involvement in these helped it top the chart by value as well. During the year, it advised on 69 billion-dollar deals* that also included nine mega deals valued more than $10 billion.”

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom occupied the second position in terms of value, by advising on $317.1 billion worth of deals, followed by Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison with $277 billion, Cravath Swaine & Moore with $223.2 billion, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett with $182.8 billion.

Meanwhile, Latham & Watkins occupied the second position in terms of volume with 161 deals, followed by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher with 156 deals, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison with 146 deals, and Ropes & Gray with 115 deals.

*Valued more than or equal to $1 billion