Sullivan & Cromwell No. 1 in M&A Work
Sullivan & Cromwell topped the list of law firms handling mergers and acquisitions work last year.
The firm handled transactions valued at $434.3 billion, an 11 percent drop from 2006, Bloomberg reports. Two huge energy mergers involving acquisitions by Endesa SA of Spain and TXU Corp. helped keep the law firm in first place for the fourth year in a row.
Second on the list was U.K.-based Allen & Overy, which didn’t even make the top 10 in 2006. In third place was another British firm, Freshfields Bruckhaus & Deringer. Only four U.S.-based firms made the top 10 list.
Law firms are expecting the slowdown in M&A work that began in the second half of the year to continue. Reasons for a drop in activity include the subprime mortgage crisis and problems in the credit markets.
Martin Lipton of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, which came in fourth on the list, predicted in an annual client note that M&A volume will drop more than 25 percent in 2008.
