Allen & Overy and Kirkland & Ellis have emerged as the top legal advisers for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) during the first quarter of 2025 in the automotive sector, according to the latest financial advisers league table by GlobalData. 

The data and analytics company’s latest financial advisers league table shows that Allen & Overy secured the leading position by deal value, advising on transactions worth a total of $2.1bn.

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Kirkland & Ellis topped the volume rankings, having advised on four separate deals during the period.

GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “Kirkland & Ellis registered an improvement in the number of deals advised by it during Q1 2025 compared to Q1 2024. Resultantly, its ranking by volume also improved from the seventh position to the top position over the same period.

“Meanwhile, Allen & Overy, despite advising on a relatively lesser number of deals, managed to lead by value in Q1 2025. Involvement in the $1.4bn American Axle & Manufacturing-Dowlais deal was pivotal for Allen & Overy in securing the top spot by value in Q1 2025.”

In terms of value, Cravath Swaine & Moore, Norton Rose Fulbright, and Slaughter and May shared second place, each advising on deals valued at $1.4bn.

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton followed, with deal involvement totalling $701m.

In terms of volume, AZB & Partners and CMS ranked second, each advising on three deals. They were followed by Allen & Overy and TriLegal, which each worked on two transactions.

GlobalData’s league tables are based on the real-time tracking of thousands of company websites, advisory firm websites and other reliable sources available on 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 to the data, the company also seeks submissions of deals from leading advisers. 

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