Three law firms – Kirkland & Ellis, Vinson & Elkins and Latham & Watkins – continue to dominate the top of the rankings for advising Texas-based companies in mergers and acquisitions.
New data provided exclusively to The Texas Lawbook from the global research firm Mergermarket shows that 18 of the top 25 corporate law firms representing Texas businesses involved in M&A activity for the first nine months of 2017 increased the number of deals they’ve handled during the first nine months compared to the same time period a year ago.
Ten law firms increased their M&A activity by 20 percent or more.
Mergermarket reports that 16 of the top 25 law firms ranked by deal count are non-Texas based law firms.
When it comes to the largest corporate transactions, Texas general counsel continue to turn to mostly to non-Texas based firms as their legal advisers. Mergermarket data for deal value shows that 22 of the top 25 law firms are based outside of Texas.
In fact, 12 of the top 25 firms by deal value do not even have an office in Texas.
Only three Texas-based law firms – V&E, Andrews Kurth Kenyon and Baker Botts – are ranked in the top 25 for deal value.
Kirkland worked on 55 transactions involving corporations headquartered in Texas during the first three quarters of 2017, which is actually a decline from the 64 deals the firm handled a year ago. Kirkland also topped the charts for total deal value at $79 billion, according to Mergermarket, which is up 51 percent from the same period in 2016.
Houston-based V&E witnessed a 40 percent increase in deal count during the first nine months of 2017 and ranked second in deal count and seventh in deal value in the Mergermarket charts.
Lawyers at Latham advised in 29 percent more transactions during the first three quarters of this year and ranks third in both in deal count and deal value.
The Mergermarket data shows that several firms are experiencing a tremendously successful M&A year so far. For example:
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- Weil, Gotshal & Manges jumped from ninth to fourth in deal count by increasing the number of transactions it has handled by 40 percent;
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- Houston-based Andrews Kurth Kenyon has advised in 67 percent more deals, jumping from 15th to seventh in the rankings;
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- Baker Botts, which is also headquartered in Houston, worked on 23 announced transactions – up from 15 last year – and leaped from 14th to ninth;
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- Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett, which has a Houston outpost, nearly doubled its deal count and jumped from 29th last year to 13th;
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- Cravath, Swaine & Moore, which has no Texas presence, nearly tripled its deal count – from three to eight – and climbed from being ranked 63rd last year to crack the top 25 this year; and
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- Paul Weiss, which also has no Texas offices, worked on 56 percent more transactions so far this year and jumped from being ranked 31st to 18th.
Next week, The Texas Lawbook will issue its exclusive Corporate Deal Tracker data that tracks all mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, divestitures and securities offerings handled by lawyers based in Texas.