CDT Roundup: 18 Deals, 15 Law Firms, 99 Lawyers, $6.74B

Merger and acquisition activity usually starts out the year slowly and then builds. But if a report by Bloomberg is to be believed, last month was the best January for deals globally since 2000 with $275 billion worth of transactions.

North American deals were up 40 percent in the month hitting $187 billion, according to the news and data provider, followed by Asia at $47 billion, which represented an increase of 10 percent. In Europe, however, M&A volumes fell about 24 percent to $30.5 billion.