GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, has revealed its league tables for top 10 legal advisers by value and volume in North America for 2020 in its report, ‘Global & North America M&A Review & Financial Adviser League tables 2020’.
According to GlobalData’s M&A report, a total 12,950 M&A deals were announced during 2020, marking a 7.1% decrease over the 13,937 deals announced in 2019. The deal value decreased by 14.9% from $1.5tn in 2019 to $1.3tn in 2020.
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Top Adviser by Value and Volume
Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz and Kirkland & Ellis were the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) legal advisers in North America for 2020 by value and volume, respectively. Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz advised on 66 deals worth $302.9bn while, Kirkland & Ellis advised on 611 deals worth $261.4bn.
GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “While Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz was the sole adviser that managed to surpass the $300bn mark during the COVID-19 hit 2020. Kirkland & Ellis was also the only adviser to have advised on more than 600 deals.
“Despite outpacing its peers by a great margin in volume, Kirkland & Ellis lost the top position in terms of value to Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz and settled for the third position. Involvement in a greater number of big-ticket deals remains the key as Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz advised on less than 100 deal but achieved high-value transactions, including ten ‘mega deals’ valued more than or equal to $10bn. On the other hand, Kirkland & Ellis advised only on four mega deals.”
Latham & Watkins occupied the second position both in terms of value and volume with 284 deals worth $290.8bn. Goodwin Procter and Jones Day occupied third and fourth position by volume with 220 deals each worth $136bn and $93.9bn, respectively.
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By GlobalDataWachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz and Kirkland & Ellis also remained as the top advisers by value and volume in the US – the key North American market.
In Canada, Osler Hoskin & Harcourt and Blake Cassels & Graydon were the top advisers by value and volume, respectively.
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 from leading advisers, through adviser submission forms on GlobalData’s website
