Wall Street M&A Lawyers Vie for Piece of Shrinking Deals Market

Sullivan & Cromwell was the top legal adviser for mergers and acquisitions in the first quarter, as overall deals activity continued to plummet.

S&C worked on more than $61 billion worth of deals as principal adviser, according to Bloomberg league tables data. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz followed with more than $57 billion in deals work.

“In times of perceived economic instability, it’s natural that you would see a flight to quality, and so the big firms that are most seasoned at handling large M&A transactions are probably getting an outsize share of the work right now,” said Melissa Sawyer, ...