Law firm rankings? Where would we be without them. The first quarter of the 2014 Am Law rankings, released this week, and for M&A advisors has Skadden Arps and Simpson Tacher in the top three.

The charts were released by various media entities and trends were based on the value of coprorate clients’ transactions internationally for the first three months of 2014. Skaddens came out first in the Thomson Reuters and Bloombergs figures, beating Sipson Thacher, but MergerMarket’s figures had Simpson Tacher claiming top position. In all lists, White & Case came home in third spot.

So who is correct?

Well, if its any consolation for the firms involved, Simpson Thacher is the only firm at the top of the lists this year who also appeared at the top of the lists for the first quarter in 2013.

The three surveys also looked at the total number of deals announced by the law firms’ clients in 2014’s first quarter. In that category Jones Day and Kirkland & Ellis came home with the pole position.

All of which shows that slicing and dicing law firm deals can create – like statistics – just about any answer you want.

Still, interesting reading.

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