It has been a quarter rife with geopolitical tensions, extreme capital market volatility and whipsawing commodity prices. But M&A practitioners – C-suite executives, financial and legal advisors – appear unflappable.

As the race for AI quickens, financial institutions merge to achieve scale, and food behemoths combine – some familiar names appear as winners in this volatile new world where big is beautiful, according to Mergermarket’s 1Q26 global and regional M&A rankings.

Some 10,870 M&A deals valued at USD 1.38tn were transacted in 1Q26, up from USD 1.15tn from 12,080 deals as of 1Q25, data from Mergermarket shows. An increase in deal volume has offset the decline in deal count, with 21 deals north of USD 10bn were announced.

Amid the dealmaking bonanza, Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz jumped nine spots from 1Q25 to assume the global leadership position with USD 236.279bn, up 138% from 1Q25, across 22 deals — five of which qualified as mega-deals. It also handled 16 deals on the target/divestor side, with the largest being its mandate to provide sell-side advise to OpenAI in its 15.07% stake sale for USD 122bn to investors including Amazon, NVIDIA and SoftBank. It is notable that on this transaction — the largest of the year thus far, there were no financial advisors – only legal advisors; Wachtell on the sell-side while Clifford Chance worked with Amazon. Wachtell also worked on five other deals in tech and four in financial services.

Clifford Chance scooped up the silver, jumping up a spot from 1Q25 with USD 215.3bn across 49 deals. As with Wachtell, it also landed the aforementioned mega OpenAI deal of the year, though it worked with Amazon. Clifford worked on four mega-deals with an estimated 60:40 split between buy-side and target/divest-side mandates. On a majority of its 29 buyside deals, it worked with European clients to acquire targets within the region.

Kirkland & Ellis, last year’s volume winner with about USD 1tn in dealmaking to its name, slipped to bronze earning USD 194.15bn across 198 deals. Its top deal was its buy-side counsel to US-based Global Infrastructure Partners to acquire electric power generator AES for USD 38bn. Of its 198 deals, 65% were on the buy-side.

Kirkland & Ellis also took the deal count crown, followed by Goodwin Procter, with 179 deals. In 1Q25, the two firms had deal count of 203 and 260, respectively. In 1Q25, deal count winners were DLA Piper (336) and Goodwin Procter (260).

Europe

• Clifford Chance jumped up a spot to take the gold with USD 81.45bn while Freshfields slipped by the same margin to earn silver with USD 72.42bn
• Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton moved up seven spots to grab the bronze with USD 66.54bn driven by two marquee transactions: its buyside counsel to McCormick & Co in its USD 42bn acquisition of Unilever’s food business; its buyside counsel to French energy provider Engie in its USD 21.37 acquisition of UK Power Networks Holdings
• DLA Piper retained gold for deal count, though its haul declined by almost half to 96 in 1Q26 while CMS kept its silver
• BAHR climbed up 37 spots to clinch the bronze with 58 deals worth USD 632m
• In the UK, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton jumped 56 spots to earn top spot with USD 66.23bn across deals
• In DACH, Hengeler Mueller took the crown with USD 50.6bn across nine deals
• In France, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer jumped 81 spots to claim the gold with USD 26.57bn in deals. It displaced Clifford Chance
• In Iberia, Uria Menendez led the volume race with USD 21.9bn across 27 deals, ousting Linklaters
• In Italy, Gianni and Origoni earned the top spot with USD 30.08bn
• In the Nordics, Linklaters surged 64 spots to the top with USD 10.16bn
• In Middle East, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom led value with USD 13.93bn across three deals

Americas

• Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz moved up by three places to earn the gold in deal volume with USD 236.28bn. Clifford Chance jumped 14 spots to get the silver with USD 197.24bn, while Kirkland & Ellis (USD 183.21bn) took the bronze
• Kirkland & Ellis jumped a spot for deal count with 188 deals
• Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz also kept its gold in the US with USD 236.26bn. It also kept its regional crown in the West.
• In the Northeast, Kirkland & Ellis retained its gold with USD 131.12bn
• In the Midwest, Sullivan & Cromwell jumped 16 spots to take the crown
• In the South, Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson jumped three spots to land on first
• In Canada, McCarthy Tetrault jumped 15 spots to lead the volume charts with USD 13.26bn with 22 deals. It displaced Stikeman Elliott

APAC

• In APAC (ex Japan), Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer moved up nine places to stand first by volume with USD 47.08bn across 26 deals
• Linklaters claimed the silver with USD 27.93bn across nine deals
• Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton climbed 22 spots to the third place with USD 26.83bn from four transactions
• For deal count in APAC excl. Japan, Indian firms Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas and Khaitan earned the crown with 46 deals each
• In Japan, Nishimura & Asahi Mori Hamada & Masumoto climbed up four spots to get the gold with USD 22.09bn across 42 deals.
• In Australasia, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer jumped a spot to top the deal volume rankings with USD 25.71bn across 25 transactions
• In Greater China, Linklaters grabbed the lead by deal volume with USD 24.14bn across four transactions. Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton jumped 57 spots to come second with USD 23.33bn across three deals
• In India, Khaitan led by both deal value and count with USD 7.53bn with 46 deals
• In South Korea, Kim & Chang took the lead for deal volume with USD 14.55bn across 24 deals

Global buyouts

• Kirkland & Ellis retained the top spot by volume and deal count with USD 66.74bn across 56 deals.
• Simpson Thacher & Bartlett climbed eight spots to take the silver for deal volume with USD 64.61bn.

Global exits

• Latham & Watkins kept its volume crown with USD 56.04bn deals across 15 deals. Sullivan & Cromwell came second on volume with USD 35.45bn across two deals.
• Kirkland & Ellis led the deal count with USD 22.04bn across 31 deals.