Kirkland and Ellis secured the top position as the leading mergers and acquisitions (M&A) legal adviser in the oil and gas sector in 2024, in terms of both deal value and volume, according to GlobalData, a data and analytics company.

GlobalData's deals database has indicated that Kirkland & Ellis attained the top spot by advising on 45 transactions valued at $91.5bn.

GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose commented: “Kirkland & Ellis was the top adviser by volume in 2023 and also retained its leadership position by this metric in 2024 as well. Though the number of deals advised by it mostly remained at the same level in 2024 compared to 2023, there was a significant jump in terms of value due to involvement in many big-ticket deals.

“During the year, Kirkland & Ellis advised on $21bn deals that also included two megadeals valued at more than $10bn. Resultantly, its ranking by value also took a leap from the tenth position in 2023 to the top position in 2024.”

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz claimed the second spot in terms of deal value, advising on transactions worth $72.2bn, followed by Vinson & Elkins with $65.8bn, Latham & Watkins with $44.2bn and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison with $36bn.

Vinson & Elkins took second place based on the volume of transactions, with 35 deals. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher followed with 24 deals, while Latham & Watkins was involved in 22 deals and White & Case in 20.

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.