{"id":141397,"date":"2026-01-09T14:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T22:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/09\/biglaws-ma-party-hit-4-6-trillion-and-kirkland-still-drank-everyone-elses-champagne\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T14:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T22:42:11","slug":"biglaws-ma-party-hit-4-6-trillion-and-kirkland-still-drank-everyone-elses-champagne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/09\/biglaws-ma-party-hit-4-6-trillion-and-kirkland-still-drank-everyone-elses-champagne\/","title":{"rendered":"Biglaw\u2019s M&A Party Hit $4.6 Trillion, And Kirkland Still Drank Everyone Else\u2019s Champagne"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new report confirms what M&A associates already knew in their bones: the mergers and acquisitions market wasn\u2019t just hot last year, it was record-setting. According to data released this week by the London Stock Exchange Group, 2025 featured the most-ever M&A mega-deals, with 68 transactions clocking in at $10 billion or more. Globally, M&A value hit a staggering $4.6 trillion, representing a 49% increase over 2024.<\/p>\n

And if you\u2019re wondering who made out like bandits in this frenzy of consolidation, well, let\u2019s just say the usual suspects didn\u2019t exactly miss the party.<\/p>\n

Sitting comfortably atop the rankings once again is Kirkland & Ellis, which served as principal adviser on $829 billion worth of deals. Kirkland was joined in the stratosphere by Latham & Watkins, Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, and Skadden Arps, each advising on $600 billion or more in transactions last year.<\/p>\n

Michael Weisser, a private equity partner at Kirkland, put it bluntly to Reuters<\/a>, \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that the legal market has sort of bifurcated and there is a flight to the top.\u201d So\u2026 if you\u2019re not already elite, good luck getting invited to the table.<\/p>\n

Latham\u2019s Alex Kelly echoed the point, predicting the stratification will only deepen. As deals grow \u201cin volume, complexity and geographic reach,\u201d clients are increasingly relying on a smaller and smaller cadre of firms to get the job done.<\/p>\n

Goodwin Procter took the No. 1 spot for number of deals, advising on a whopping 945 transactions worth $123 billion. Vice chair Stuart Cable told Reuters there\u2019s \u201cno reason to be anything other than highly optimistic\u201d about 2026.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Wachtell\u2019s Adam Emmerich and Jacob Kling suggested that even this banner year might just be a warm-up act. \u201cWe are neck deep in ongoing deals, and the pipeline is bulging as well,\u201d they said. Which is probably thrilling news if you\u2019re a partner\u2026 and a scheduling nightmare if you\u2019re an associate with a vacation request pending.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Biglaw\u2019s M&A Party Hit $4.6 Trillion, And Kirkland Still Drank Everyone Else\u2019s Champagne<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(via Getty Images)\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A new report confirms what M&A associates already knew in their bones: the mergers and acquisitions market wasn\u2019t just hot last year, it was record-setting. According to data released this week by the London Stock Exchange Group, 2025 featured the most-ever M&A mega-deals, with 68 transactions clocking in at $10 billion or more. Globally, M&A value hit a staggering $4.6 trillion, representing a 49% increase over 2024.<\/p>\n

And if you\u2019re wondering who made out like bandits in this frenzy of consolidation, well, let\u2019s just say the usual suspects didn\u2019t exactly miss the party.<\/p>\n

Sitting comfortably atop the rankings once again is Kirkland & Ellis, which served as principal adviser on $829 billion worth of deals. Kirkland was joined in the stratosphere by Latham & Watkins, Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, and Skadden Arps, each advising on $600 billion or more in transactions last year.<\/p>\n

Michael Weisser, a private equity partner at Kirkland, put it bluntly to Reuters<\/a>, \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that the legal market has sort of bifurcated and there is a flight to the top.\u201d So\u2026 if you\u2019re not already elite, good luck getting invited to the table.<\/p>\n

Latham\u2019s Alex Kelly echoed the point, predicting the stratification will only deepen. As deals grow \u201cin volume, complexity and geographic reach,\u201d clients are increasingly relying on a smaller and smaller cadre of firms to get the job done.<\/p>\n

Goodwin Procter took the No. 1 spot for number of deals, advising on a whopping 945 transactions worth $123 billion. Vice chair Stuart Cable told Reuters there\u2019s \u201cno reason to be anything other than highly optimistic\u201d about 2026.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Wachtell\u2019s Adam Emmerich and Jacob Kling suggested that even this banner year might just be a warm-up act. \u201cWe are neck deep in ongoing deals, and the pipeline is bulging as well,\u201d they said. Which is probably thrilling news if you\u2019re a partner\u2026 and a scheduling nightmare if you\u2019re an associate with a vacation request pending.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new report confirms what M&A associates already knew in their bones: the mergers and acquisitions market wasn\u2019t just hot last year, it was record-setting. According to data released this week by the London Stock Exchange Group, 2025 featured the most-ever M&A mega-deals, with 68 transactions clocking in at $10 billion or more. Globally, M&A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":141353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-Cfwk9x.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}