Which law firm leads the 2026 M&A rankings?
Ben Thomson, LawFuel contributing editor
Kirkland & Ellis leads the M&A rankings as the Chicago-founded firm advised on 350 deals worth close to $474.5 billion in the first half of 2026, being a comfortable 18% ahead of second-placed Skadden’s $402.8 billion across just 105 deals, according to LSEG data. All of which points once again to why Kirklands continue to reign supreme in partner remuneration.
Sullivan & Cromwell, which had briefly held the top spot in Q1, slipped to third with $395 billion. Wachtell Lipton rounded out the top four at $367.7 billion.
Kirkland seems to annex these tables. Its ability to convert associate headcount and eye-watering bonus pools into deal-flow dominance is the kind of pay-versus-output story we’ve been tracking in our BigLaw pay coverage and also goes part way towarding showing why Kirkland keeps winning the war for lateral talent too.
How big was H1 2026 for M&A generally?
Global M&A activity hit $2.85 trillion in the first half , up 50% year-on-year and the strongest start to a year since LSEG’s records began in 1980. Q2 alone totalled $1.6 trillion, a 31% jump on Q1 and the largest single quarter for worldwide M&A on record, marking the fourth straight quarter above $1 trillion.
Mega-deals (over $10 billion) told their own story with 48 of them, worth $1.3 trillion combined, more than double H1 2025’s tally. Yet total deal count fell 9% to just over 24,500, a six-year low. That means that biglaw’s most profitable clients are doing less, but doing it enormously.
Who are the biggest movers in the rankings?
Paul Weiss rocketed from 12th to 5th with $328.5 billion of deals. But the real scene-stealer is McGuireWoods, which went from a startling 149th place to 22nd after landing a slice of NextEra Energy’s $119.7 billion acquisition of Dominion Energy, working opposite Kirkland.
Paul Hastings (50th to 13th, $188 billion) and Fried Frank (40th to 16th, $165.8 billion) both climbed on the back of aggressive lateral hiring campaigns, Paul Hastings poaching dealmakers from Sidley Austin and Cravath, Fried Frank adding Pillsbury’s M&A chief. Goodwin Procter (26th to 12th, $191.1 billion), Vinson & Elkins (53rd to 20th, $128.3 billion), DLA Piper (62nd to 23rd, $118.2 billion) and Orrick (82nd to 25th, $116 billion) all posted similarly sharp gains.
Which non-US firms rank highest for M&A?
Freshfields is the best-placed non-US firm globally, in 8th with $250.2 billion across 113 deals, a result that will do nothing to slow the Magic Circle’s ongoing identity crisis about whether it’s still competing with the US firms or merely observing them from a respectful distance. Clifford Chance followed in 11th, with Linklaters at 15th.
What does this mean for BigLaw pay and hiring?
Record deal value at the top of the table means record leverage for the firms doing the work, always remembering that where deal flow goes, associate bonus season and lateral partner comp inevitably follow.
Technology M&A alone jumped 90% year-on-year to $668 billion, energy and power rose 41% to $383.6 billion, and private equity-backed deals hit $601.9 billion — their strongest H1 since 1980.
If you’re an M&A associate at Kirkland, Skadden or Paul Weiss right now, this is the chart that will help determines your November bonus.
By deal volume rather than value, Goodwin Procter again topped the table with 385 deals, ahead of Latham & Watkins (371) and Kirkland (350), a reminder that the “most deals” and “most money” crowns rarely sit on the same head.
