Kirkland & Ellis has emerged as the leading mergers and acquisitions (M&A) legal adviser based on deal value and volume for 2024, according to the latest financial advisers league table by GlobalData. 

According to GlobalData’s Deals Database analysis, Kirkland & Ellis advised on 576 deals, cumulatively valued at $422.3bn.

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GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “Kirkland & Ellis was the clear winner in 2024, outpacing its peers by a significant margin. It was the only firm to advise on more than 500 deals in the year.

“Moreover, it was also the only adviser with total deal value surpassing $400bn during the year. Interestingly, Kirkland & Ellis was also the top adviser by both value and volume during the previous year as well.

“Kirkland & Ellis registered a double-digit growth in total value and volume of deals advised by it during 2024 compared to 2023. It advised on $89bn deals, which also included nine mega deals valued more than $10bn. Involvement in these big-ticket deals helped Kirkland & Ellis to register improvement in terms of value.”

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom secured the second position in terms of deal value, having advised on transactions totalling $354bn.

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It was followed by Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison with deals worth $295.7bn, Cravath Swaine & Moore with $254.4bn, and Latham & Watkins closely behind at $254bn.

In terms of deal volume, CMS took the second spot with their involvement in 325 deals. White & Case came in third with 253 deals, followed by Latham & Watkins with 245, and Allen & Overy with 208 deals advised.

GlobalData’s league tables are based on the real-time tracking of thousands of company websites, advisory company websites and other reliable sources available in the secondary domain. A dedicated team of analysts monitors all these sources to gather in-depth details for each deal, including adviser names.​   

To ensure further robustness of the data, the company also seeks deal submissions  from leading advisers.