Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins have emerged as the leading law firms in the global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) sector for 2025. With a total of 537 advised deals, Kirkland & Ellis retained its crown as the most-advised firm from 2024. Latham & Watkins was a very close second with 526 transactions, taking home second-place honors in the rankings.
Both firms distinguished themselves in what was a remarkably competitive field. In fact, only Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins beat them to the remarkable milestone of 500 deals this year. Their deep participation in the most valuable deals fueled their high league table placements.
Performance Breakdown
Kirkland & Ellis not just topped the charts by deal volume, but with incredible consistency demonstrated an outright physical dominance in its performance. The practice has great name recognition and that’s how the firm stays on top, because the reputation is so strong. It further enjoys deep client relationships across the M&A landscape.
Latham & Watkins showed remarkable firepower in that arena, too — a record 526 buy-side (advise-on) deals, 108 of those being $1 billion or more. At the same time, the consulting firm had 17 mega deals—defined as worth $100 million or more. All of these transactions were $10 billion+ dollars in value.
According to Aurojyoti Bose, lead analyst at GlobalData, the ongoing competitive dynamics between the two companies has been imperative to the overall market.
“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.” – Aurojyoti Bose
The Competitive Landscape
In 2025, the M&A advisory market boomed with activity. Scores of consulting companies and firms have scrambled to nab their places in this coveted market. As we know, global economic conditions are ever-evolving. Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins are poised to profitably lead the charge through all this change.
Kirkland & Ellis’s historic back-to-back success from year to year speaks to the firm’s aggressive business strategy towards serving its clients and executing deals. At the same time, Latham & Watkins’s performance on high-value transactions highlights its strong transactional firepower to tackle the most complicated deals.
As a result, these M&A-related developments denote how both firms will be instrumental players in the future M&A environment.
Looking Ahead
The M&A market continues to change. Looking forward, it will be fascinating to watch how other law firms react to the eye-popping results delivered by Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins. The competition may intensify as firms innovate and adapt their strategies to capture greater market share.