Corrects dateline, corrects a pronoun in paragraph 12
By David Thomas
Jan 7 (Reuters) - Law firms feasted on a near record year for mergers and acquisitions in 2025, including the most-ever transactions worth $10 billion or more, according to data released this week by the London Stock Exchange Group.
As 2026 gets underway, dealmakers at top firms told Reuters they expect this year to be at least as busy.
"There's no reason to be anything other than highly optimistic," said Stuart Cable, the vice chair of Goodwin Procter and the global head of its M&A practice.
The value of global announced M&A deals during 2025 hit $4.6 trillion, a 49% increase compared to last year and the highest figure since global dealmaking reached a historic peak in 2021, LSEG said in its latest rankings of M&A legal advisers.
LSEG said it recorded 68 $10 billion-plus "mega deals" last year, the most since records began in 1980.
The top-ranked principal legal advisers nearly all saw major increases in the value of deals they worked.
Chicago-founded Kirkland & Ellis -- which repeated its position atop the rankings -- was principal adviser on $829 billion in deals, according to preliminary LSEG figures, slightly more than double its combined deal value in 2024.
Latham & Watkins was ranked second-highest among principal advisers and first among firms with any involvement in a transaction. Its combined deal value as principal adviser was $719 billion in 2025, up 125% over the prior year.
An LSEG spokesperson said Wednesday that some details in the rankings could be revised based on its recording of competing bids for Warner Bros Discovery WBD.O.
Four law firms -- Kirkland, Latham, Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz and Skadden Arps -- each served as principal adviser on $600 billion worth of deals or more in 2025, breaking away from the other firms in LSEG's top 20, whose average combined deal value was about $232 billion.
"There's no doubt that the legal market has sort of bifurcated and there is a flight to the top," said Michael Weisser, a private equity partner at Kirkland.
Alex Kelly, who co-chairs the M&A and private equity practice at Latham & Watkins, said in an email she expects the stratification to continue.
"As deals increase in volume, complexity and geographic reach, clients are looking to a smaller number of firms to source, structure and execute on transactions," Kelly said.
Interest rate cuts helped spur dealmaking in 2025, and "there's a lot of room to go downward, which I think portends well for 2026 and beyond," said Michael Kendall, who also co-leads the M&A practice at Goodwin.
Boston-founded Goodwin Procter took the No. 1 principal adviser spot by number of deals in the LSEG data, working on 945 deals worth $123 billion.
Adam Emmerich and Jacob Kling, dealmaking leaders at Wachtell, in a statement said 2025 was a banner year for M&A but 2026 could top it.
"We are neck deep in ongoing deals, and the pipeline is bulging as well," they said.
A Citizens Financial survey of about 400 companies found M&A activity is expected to rise among midsize companies as private equity firms become more willing to do deals.
Bankers at Goldman Sachs GS.N and Morgan Stanley MS.N also expressed optimism last month that the uptick in M&A activity would continue into 2026.
(Reporting by David Thomas)
((D.Thomas@thomsonreuters.com;))
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