GlobalData’s top 20 legal adviser firms
The top legal advisory firms league table for Q2 2018. Data supplied by GlobalData.
| Q2 2018 | Q2 2017 | Q2 2018 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Adviser name | Value (USD B) | Number of deals | Value (USD B) | Number of deals | Value change (%) |
| 1 | Sullivan & Cromwell | 102.6 | 52 | 200.6 | 40 | 0.49 |
| 2 | Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson | 58.2 | 16 | 191.3 | 27 | 0.7 |
| 3 | Latham & Watkins | 87.5 | 126 | 185.6 | 59 | 0.53 |
| 4 | Davis Polk & Wardwell | 44.3 | 29 | 166.3 | 28 | 0.73 |
| 5 | Clearly Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton | 17.6 | 25 | 151.3 | 26 | 0.88 |
| 6 | Linklaters | 19.6 | 57 | 146.4 | 47 | 0.87 |
| 7 | Watchtell Lipton Rosen & Katz | 93.6 | 25 | 140.4 | 31 | 0.33 |
| 8 | Simpson Thatcher and Bartlett | 72.5 | 47 | 136.6 | 44 | 0.47 |
| 9 | Slaughter & May | 5.7 | 9 | 132.6 | 15 | 0.96 |
| 10 | Weil Gotshal & Manges | 36.8 | 39 | 112.1 | 37 | 0.67 |
| 11 | Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer | 15 | 41 | 106.4 | 38 | 0.86 |
| 12 | Cravath Swaine & Moore | 34.6 | 39 | 99.5 | 15 | 0.65 |
| 13 | Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom | 72.7 | 51 | 98.3 | 55 | 0.26 |
| 14 | Goodwin Proctor | 27.3 | 110 | 96.2 | 135 | 0.72 |
| 15 | Jones Day | 103.9 | 62 | 96.1 | 86 | -0.08 |
| 16 | Nishimura & Asahi | 0.0 | 8 | 84.4 | 20 | 1 |
| 17 | Mori Hamada & Matsumoto | 3.6 | 9 | 83.8 | 6 | 0.96 |
| 18 | Mourant Ozzannes | 0.3 | 3 | 80.9 | 5 | 1 |
| 19 | Cooley | 3.0 | 28 | 80.9 | 36 | 0.96 |
| 20 | Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu | 2.6 | 5 | 80.7 | 7 | 0.97 |
US legal firm Sullivan & Cromwell led the legal advisers league table published by GlobalData.
In terms of value it advised on total announced deals worth $201bn in the second quarter of 2018.
In terms of volumes, Jones Day topped the charts with 135 deals during the quarter, followed by Latham & Watkins LLP and Goodwin Procter LLP with 59 deals each. These three advisers are ranked 15th, 3rd and 13th in value terms, respectively.
GlobalData used its tracking of all merger and acquisition, private equity/venture capital and asset transaction activity around the world to compile this league table.
The overall global deals value grew 77.8% from $547.7bn in Q2 2017 to $973.9bn in Q2 2018, while volume rose marginally by 3.9% from 8,683 to 9,019 during the two quarters in review, respectively.
All announced deals count towards the league table total compiled by GlobalData.