Latham & Watkins and Kirkland & Ellis have topped the legal adviser charts for global mergers and acquisitions in 2025, based on data from GlobalData’s latest Legal Advisers League Table.
As per GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database, Latham & Watkins led by value with advisory on deals valued at $740.4bn.
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Kirkland & Ellis provided legal counsel on 537 deals over the past year, topping the volume chart.
The rankings show Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in the second spot by value, with advisory on deals worth $711bn.
Kirkland & Ellis was ranked third in terms of value by offering advice on $633.5bn worth of deals.
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Sullivan & Cromwell completed the top five by value, with $627.5bn and $490.3bn respectively.
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By GlobalDataIn terms of deal volume, Latham & Watkins took the second spot with 526 deals, followed by CMS in the third place with involvement in 348 transactions.
DLA Piper and White & Case rounded out the top five by volume, with advisory on 316 and 290 deals respectively.
GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “Kirkland & Ellis was the top adviser in 2024 by volume and managed to retain its leadership position in 2025 as well but faced close competition from Latham & Watkins. Both the law firms were the only two advisers with more than 500 deals during 2025. While Kirkland & Ellis led with 537 deals, Latham & Watkins followed closely to occupy the second spot with 526 deals.
“Of the 526 deals advised by Latham & Watkins during 2025, 108 were billion-dollar deals that also included 17 mega deals valued at or more than $10bn. The involvement in these big-ticket deals helped Latham & Watkins top the table by value in 2025.”
GlobalData’s league tables are based on the real-time tracking of thousands of company websites, advisory firm websites and other reliable sources available on 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 to the data, the company also seeks submissions of deals from leading advisers.
