© 2013 The Texas Lawbook.
By Mark Curriden
Senior Writer for The Texas Lawbook
(June 9) – When it comes to mergers and acquisitions, southern-based law firms are losing their draw.
Mergermarket Media reports that law firms based in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles dominated the M&A market in the 15 southern states, including Texas, during the first half of 2013.
Only five southern law firms – Vinson & Elkins, Akin Gump, Andrews Kurth, Greenberg Traurig and Norton Rose Fulbright – ranked in the top 15 law firms advising southern-based businesses involved in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and joint ventures during the first six months of this year.
The data also shows that M&A in the 15 southern states, from Virginia to Florida to Texas, slowed significantly from January to June.
Nearly every law firm in the 15 saw their deal counts decline during the first two quarters of 2013. Akin Gump and Andrews & Kurth were the exceptions, according to mergermarket, an independent global M&A research firm affiliated with the Financial Times.
While total number of transactions declined from H1 2012 to H1 2013, the value of those deals increased.
Chicago-based Kirkland & Ellis led the region with 39 deals, followed by Latham & Watkins and Jones Day. Kirkland does not have an office in any of the 15 southern states.
Weil, Gotshal & Manges, White & Case and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz – all three New York-based law firms – led the region in the highest value of the deals in which they advised. Each firm was involved in transactions that combined exceeded $40 billion in value.
Akin Gump actually doubled the number of transactions it handled during the first two quarters of 2013 – from 11 in 2012 to 22 in 2013.
Mergermarket reports that V&E is the only Texas-based law firm in its list of top 20 U.S. legal advisors on M&A. V&E was involved in 31 deals during the first six months, compared to 47 transactions a year earlier.
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