Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins ranked as the top legal advisers for power sector mergers and acquisitions (M&A) during the first three quarters (Q1-Q3) of 2026.
They led by value and volume, respectively, according to a league table from data analytics company GlobalData.
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Kirkland & Ellis secured the highest position by deal value, advising on transactions worth $169.5bn between January and September 2026.
Latham & Watkins led the volume rankings, acting on 26 deals during the same period.
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison placed second by value, advising on $114.6bn worth of transactions.
Vinson & Elkins followed with $108.1bn, while McGuireWoods and Davis Polk & Wardwell advised on deals valued at $102.5bn and $41.9bn, respectively.
For deal volume, Gibson, DLA Piper held third position with 23 transactions.
Kirkland & Ellis followed with 22 deals, while CMS ranked fifth with 18 transactions.
GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “Latham & Watkins was the top adviser by volume in Q1-Q3 2025 and retained its leadership position by this metric in Q1-Q3 2026 as well. However, it faced close competition from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, which settled at the second position in terms of volume with 25 deals.
“However, Kirkland & Ellis was the clear winner by value, outpacing its peers by a significant margin, as there was around three-fold year-on-year jump in its total advised deals value.
“During Q1-Q3 2026, it advised on nine billion-dollar deals that also included a very high-value transaction worth more than $100bn. Involvement in these big-ticket deals helped Kirkland & Ellis register a massive jump in value.”
GlobalData’s league tables are based on the real-time tracking of thousands of company websites, advisory firm websites and other reliable sources available in 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 of the data, the company also seeks submissions of deals from leading advisers.
