Wachtell tops global M&A rankings in first half of 2009

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, the most-profitable US law firm, took the top spot on the Bloomberg list of M&A advisers for the first half of 2009, ousting UK-based Linklaters. Wachtell was doubling its merger work to around $150bn from $70 billion at the same time last year. Deal volume total has fallen 44 percent this year to $759 billion according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Wachtell was advising the targets in two of the year’s biggest deals: Pfizer’s $64 billion acquisition of Wyeth and Merck’s $47 billion takeover of Schering-Plough. Bloomberg's list of top M&A law firms for the first half of 2009: Firm - Value of deals (in billions) 1. Wachtell Lipton...........................$150.4 2. Skadden Arps.............................$119.6 3. Clifford Chance............................$109.9 4. Simpson Thacher........................$107.8 5. Mallesons...................................$ 94.2 6. Linklaters....................................$ 92.6 7. Blake Cassels.............................$ 83.5 8. Stikeman Elliott...........................$ 81.0 9. Cleary Gottlieb............................ $ 73.7 10. Allens Arthur..............................$ 72.6

Wachtell tops global M&A rankings in first half of 2009 bloomberg.com Tue, Jul 7, 2009