Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Kirkland & Ellis were the top legal advisers for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the financial services sector by value and volume, respectively, during Q1-Q3 2020. A total of 2,250 M&A deals were announced in the financial services sector during the period, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

According to GlobalData’s ‘Global and Financial Services M&A Report Legal Adviser League Tables Q1-Q3 2020’, there was a 7.3% decrease over the 2,428 deals announced during Q1-Q3 2019. Deal value also witnessed decrease of 31.9% from US$417bn in Q1-Q3 2019 to US$284bn in Q1-Q3 2020.

Skadden gained top spot in terms of deal value by advising on 23 deals worth US$79.4bn, which was the highest value among all the advisers. Meanwhile, Kirkland & Ellis led in volume terms having advised on 35 deals worth US$15.3bn.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Kirkland & Ellis, which was the only adviser to advise on more than 30 deals, lost its top position by value to Skadden, which advised on relatively fewer but big-ticket deals and occupied the second position in terms of volume.

“Skadden advised on nine billion-dollar deals (greater than or equal to US$1bn), out of which there were two megadeals (>US$10bn). On the other end, Kirkland & Ellis managed to advise on six billion-dollar deals but lacked any mega deal.”

Latham & Watkins occupied the second position by value with 17 deals worth US$58.1bn, followed by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton with 10 deals worth US$56.7bn and Weil Gotshal & Manges with 17 deals worth US$48.3bn.

Willkie Farr & Gallagher occupied the third position by volume with 21 deals worth US$17.5bn, followed by Jones Day with 20 deals with US$1.5bn.