Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom is the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) legal adviser in the first quarter of 2020 by deal value, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company. The law firm advised on 22 deals worth US$42.2bn in Q1 2020.

According to GlobalData, which tracks all M&A, private equity/venture capital and asset transaction activity around the world, confirmed that Kirkland & Ellis occupied the second position with deals worth US$39.8bn.

Aurojyoti Bose, Financial Deals Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “In terms of deal value, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom emerged as the top legal adviser in Q1 2020 despite advising on relatively fewer deals compared to its peers. This could be attributed to the company advising on some big ticket deals such as Morgan Stanley’s acquisition of E*TRADE Financial for US$13bn and Intuit’s acquisition of Credit Karma for US$7.1bn.”

Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom also occupied the top position in GlobalData’s recently released global league table of top 20 M&A legal advisers.

Kirkland & Ellis was the top M&A legal adviser in the US based on deal volume in Q1 2020 having advised on 89 deals worth US$39.8bn. Jones Day was second with 58 transactions worth US$12.2bn.

Aurojyoti Bose comments: “Kirkland & Ellis was first in terms of deal volume and second in terms of value. However, the majority of firms in the top ten companies by volume lagged behind their peers in terms of deal value. Seven of the top ten by volume failed to make it to the list of top ten by value.”