• Goodwin Procter takes global deal count crown with 196 deals
• Freshfields gains top Europe slot by value with USD 69bn
• King & Wood Mallesons wins Asia-Pacific (ex Japan) with 259% deal value jump

Despite the recent market volatility caused by US President Donald Trump’s aggressive stance on tariffs, global M&A volume increased in 1Q25, driven by a resurgence of activity in Europe and Asia-Pacific. A surge of deals announced in March, a Chinese comeback, and a search for AI were some of the leading factors behind the momentum.

Kirkland & Ellis took the crown from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom as the leading legal advisor by deal value with USD 155bn worth of deals, a 34% year-over-year jump, according to Mergermarket’s 1Q25 global and regional M&A rankings.

Three more firms in the top five recorded more than USD 100m in deals: Latham & Watkins, Sullivan & Cromwell, and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Davis Polk & Wardwell jumped two spots to complete the top five with USD 96bn worth of deals. Kirkland continued to dominate the US market, while Latham & Watkins took the silver in both the US and Europe.

Many of the firms among the top five showed a buy-side bias towards financial services or private equity (PE) firms in a trend likely to continue this year as trade war volatility grips equity markets.

Kirkland & Ellis, Sullivan & Cromwell, and Ropes & Gray worked with the buyside between 62% and 70% of the time in 1Q25. All three firms advised PE firms on their purchases, with both Kirkland & Ellis and Ropes & Gray working with Bain Capital, an active 1Q25 acquiror. In the past five years, Kirkland & Ellis and Sullivan & Cromwell have worked with Bain on 62 and 44 deals, respectively, according to Mergermarket data.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Latham & Watkins, meanwhile, displayed an almost equal buy and sell-side bias on their 39 and 139 deals, respectively. Meanwhile, both Sullivan and Freshfields – which worked on fewer than 50 deals each – advised Alphabet in its USD 32bn bid for cloud security firm Wiz.

On the deal count front, Goodwin Procter took the crown from DLA Piper with 196 deals. It was followed by Kirkland & Ellis (174) and Latham & Watkins (139), Cooley (133) and DLA Piper (127). The same five firms were already the most prolific in 1Q24.

European rainmakers

In Europe, magic circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer jumped from seventh position in 1Q24 to the top slot by value in 1Q25, with USD 69bn worth of deals, a 138% year-over-year increase. In second position was Latham & Watkins with USD 50bn to its credit, followed by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher (USD 38bn), Kirkland & Ellis (USD 35bn) and White & Case (USD 34bn).

Five of the names in the top 10 were fresh-faced entrants and they all worked on the same two deals involving Abu Dhabi National Oil. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher jumped 733% YoY to USD 30bn on the back of its advice to the Middle Eastern oil major, assisting it once on the buy-side and once on the sell-side. Meanwhile, Austrian firms Schoenherr Rechtsanwaelte and CERHA HEMPE Rechtsanwälte both assisted Austrian energy firm OMV in its joint bid with Abu Dhabi National Oil in its USD 13.5bn bid for Canada’s Nova Chemicals.  The other two names were Kirkland & Ellis and Davis Polk & Wardwell, which both jumped more than 100% YoY.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer also ranked first in the UK, DACH and Turkey; Hengeler Mueller came first in Germany; Goodwin Procter in Switzerland; Linklaters in France; Latham & Watkins in Spain; Gianni & Origoni in Italy; and Plesner in the Nordics.

On the deal count front, the same two names have dominated consistently for the past three quarters: DLA Piper (78) and CMS (75). Meanwhile, White & Case took Eversheds Sutherland’s (56) third position spot from 1Q24.

Americas royalty

In the Americas, deal value rankings somewhat reflected those held globally: Kirkland, with a massive USD 150bn in deals, followed by Latham & Watkins (USD 112bn), Davis Polk & Wardwell (USD 82bn), Ropes & Gray (USD 74bn), and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom (USD 73bn).

Kirkland also dominated in the US – and regionally in the Northeast, Midwest and South. In Canada, Stikeman Elliott rose 340% to USD 23bn, narrowly eking out Latham & Watkins at second spot.

Among the new names in the top 20 was Ropes & Gray, which climbed 163% YoY on the back of two deals – its USD 23.7bn advice to Walgreens Boots Alliance in its pending purchase by Sycamore Partners; and its counsel to JPMorgan which in turn advised Beacon Roofing Supply in its ongoing USD 11bn sale to software firm QXO.

Also among the top 20 new entrants were Fenwick & West, which rose spectacularly to land on the sixteenth spot on the back of one deal which contributed almost 70% to its total deal value: its sell-side counsel to Wiz (along with Cravath, Swaine & Moore) in its aforementioned sale to Alphabet; Stikeman Elliott, which saw 50% of its value come from its buy-side counsel to Austria’s OMV in the previously mentioned bid for Canada’s Nova Chemicals; and Sidley Austin, which rose a more subdued seven spots to land at seventeenth.

Morrison & Foerster also deserves a mention for its consistency as a top 20 US law firm and its buy-side counsel to SoftBank in its USD 40bn investment in OpenAI.

Goodwin Procter (167) narrowly took the lead on the deal count rankings, followed by Kirkland & Ellis (163) and Cooley (123).

Asia-Pacific winners

In Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan), Melbourne, Australia-headquartered King & Wood Mallesons jumped eight spots to take the crown with a 259% jump in deal value to USD 28bn.

In second and third spot were India’s Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas with USD 26bn and London-headquartered Herbert Smith Freehills with USD 13bn, respectively. Three more Indian firms dominated the top 10: Khaitan & Co, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, and AZB & Partners.

The winner in Japan was Morrison & Foerster, followed by Nishimura and Mori Hamada & Matsumoto; King & Wood Mallesons came first in China; Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas in India; Shin & Kim in South Korea; and Latham & Watkins in Southeast Asia.

Indian firms continued to dominate the Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) rankings by deal count, sealing off the top five spots. Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas retained its 1Q24 gold with 50 deals; Khaitan & Co (38) and Trilegal (37) were neck and neck for silver and bronze; AZB & Partners (35) came fourth, and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co fifth.