Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Kirkland & Ellis were the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) legal advisers in the global financial services sector in the first half (H1) of 2020 based on deal value and volume, respectively, according to GlobalData.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom advised on 14 deals worth $68.3bn, which was the highest among all the advisers. Kirkland & Ellis led in volume terms having advised on 22 deals worth $11.1bn

GlobalData has published a top ten of legal advisers ranked according to the value of announced M&A deals globally. If value remains the same for multiple advisers, deal volume is given weightage.

GlobalData financial deals analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “Kirkland & Ellis held the top spot in terms of deal volume but lagged behind others in terms of deal value. Surprisingly, the firm did not feature among the top ten advisors by value. Only two firms that ranked highly by volume – Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Latham & Watkins – achieved a spot by value.

“Meanwhile, some of the advisers such as Arthur Cox and Matheson that advised on only one deal featured in the list of top ten advisers by value. Only three of the top ten advisers by value managed to register double-digit deal volume. Nevertheless, these firms advised on few but big-ticket deals which helped them in making it to the top ten list by value.”

Latham & Watkins stood at the second place by value with 14 deals worth $57.9bn, followed by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton with eight deals worth $51.4bn.

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Willkie Farr & Gallagher occupied the second position by volume with 17 deals worth $11.3bn, followed by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

The financial services sector saw a decrease of 10.5% in deal value from $206.1bn in H1 2019 to $184.5bn in H1 2020. Deal volume fell by 10.4% from 2,227 to 1,996.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, which topped the financial services sector deals league table by value, stood at second position (by value) in GlobalData’s global league table of top 20 M&A legal advisers.

Kirkland & Ellis, which topped the financial services sector league table by volume, also secured the top position (by volume) in the global league table.

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 from leading advisers, through adviser submission forms on GlobalData’s website