Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Debevoise & Plimpton have topped the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) rankings for legal advisers in the financial services sector during the first quarter of 2025, according to GlobalData.
The data and analytics company’s Deals Database revealed that Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison led by value and Debevoise & Plimpton in terms of volume.
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Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison secured the top spot by advising on over $12bn worth of deals.
Debevoise & Plimpton led in terms of volume, having advised on eight deals during the same period.
GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “There was an improvement in the total number of deals advised by Debevoise & Plimpton in Q1 2025 compared to Q1 2024. Resultantly, its ranking by volume also improved from the 11th position in Q1 2024 to the top position in Q1 2025. Apart from leading by volume in Q1 2025, Debevoise & Plimpton also held the ninth position by value.
“Meanwhile, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison saw its ranking by value improve from the sixth position in Q1 2024 to the top position in Q1 2025 even though it experienced a year-on-year drop in the total value of deals advised. Apart from leading by value, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison also held the fifth position by volume in Q1 2025.”
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz advised on seven deals valued at $11.9bn, securing the second ranking by value, followed by Bradley Arant Boult Cummings who advised on one deal of the same value.
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom offered advisory on deals totalling $5.2bn, while Chiomenti Studio Legale advised on $4.5bn worth of deals.
In terms of volume, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett ranked second with eight deals valued at $1.3bn. Alston & Bird occupied the third position by volume, with advisory on eight deals totalling $801m.
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz followed with seven deals, while Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison completed six deals.
GlobalData’s league tables are based on the real-time tracking of thousands of company websites, advisory firm websites and other reliable sources available on the secondary domain. A dedicated team of analysts monitors all these sources to gather in-depth details for each deal, including adviser names.
To ensure further robustness to the data, the company also seeks submissions of deals from leading advisers.
