Top Law Firms on M&A Ranked as Deals Slow

Sullivan & Cromwell, hired to advise on six of the 10 biggest deals in 2007, led all law firms in mergers and acquisitions for the fourth year in a row, Bloomberg news reports.

 

The value of transactions that Sullivan & Cromwell advised on fell 11 percent from last year to $434.3 billion. Total announced mergers and acquisitions rose 10 percent to a record $4.04 trillion from last year's $3.67 trillion and from $2.91 trillion in 2005, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

 

The subprime mortgage crisis and collapse of the credit and debt markets in the second half kept the 2007 record from being higher and may curb mergers and acquisitions in 2008, deal lawyers told Bloomberg.

 

Martin Lipton, a founding partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, the fourth-ranked law firm, predicted a decline of more than 25 percent in M&A volume in 2008 in his annual client note. “The restoration of liquidity and confidence will be the determining factors,” Lipton said in the Dec. 17 memo. “I am not optimistic.'”

 

The first half of the year was marked by record deal volume, boosted by private equity firms and the availability of debt financing for leveraged buyouts. As the credit collapse hit, transactions in the fourth quarter fell to $775.9 billion from $1.09 trillion in the same quarter a year earlier.

 

The biggest jump among the top 10, Bloomberg reported, was by London-based Allen & Overy, which ranked second this year after missing the list last year. It led all European firms. Madrid-based Uria Menendez ranked eighth while Toronto-based Blake, Cassels & Graydon ranked 10th.

 

Simpson Thacher, which represents KKR & Co. and Blackstone Group, was the top law firm advising on private-equity mergers and acquisitions this year with $186.8 billion in transactions, a quarter of the total private-equity deal volume.

 

Deals involving private equity rose 2.6 percent from last year to a record $768.3 billion. All of the top ten private equity deals were announced in the first seven months of the year.

Firm                                                   Value of Deals (in billions)