Latham & Watkins is the leading oil and gas mergers and acquisitions (M&A) legal adviser by both deal value and volume in the first three quarters of 2026 (Q1-Q3), according to GlobalData’s latest league table.
GlobalData’s Deals Database shows that Latham & Watkins advised on 28 transactions worth $41.6bn, placing it first under each measure for the period.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “Latham & Watkins was the top adviser by value during Q1-Q3 2025 and managed to lead the table by this metric during Q1-Q3 2026 as well despite a year-on-year drop in the total value of deals it advised on.
“During Q1-Q3 2026, Latham & Watkins advised on 10 billion-dollar deals and the involvement in these big-ticket deals helped it to lead the table.
“Meanwhile, there was an increase in the total number of deals advised by Latham & Watkins and its ranking by volume improved from second to the top position during this period.”
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher ranked second by value with $38bn of advised deals, followed by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom with $32.6bn.
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson recorded $31.4bn, while Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advised on deals worth $22.9bn.
Kirkland & Ellis was second by volume with 27 deals, followed by Vinson & Elkins with 26, White & Case with 15, and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher with 14.
The rankings compare firms by the value and volume of oil and gas transactions on which they provided advice during the period.
GlobalData’s league tables are based on the real-time tracking of thousands of company websites, advisory firm websites and other reliable sources available in 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 of the data, the company also seeks submissions of deals from leading advisers.
