NEW YORK, April 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — The Deal announced the results of its rankings of the top firms and professionals involved in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for the first quarter of 2015. The Deal reported that 2015 so far has been driven by megadeals from strategic players across all sectors and reached the highest first-quarter deal value since 2007.

“M&A is off to a great start this year,” said David Marcus, senior writer for legal issues at The Deal. “In March alone, we saw six deals of $10 billion or more signed, which is an exceptional level of big-ticket activity. Healthcare remains strong, account for five of the 10 largest deals or bids so far this year, including Mylan NV’s hostile bid for Perrigo Co. plc, but there’s been activity across a range of industry sectors. If the stock market stays strong, we could see another record year of activity in 2015.”

League Table highlights:

• Top law firms included Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP with 22 deals; Kirkland & Ellis LLP with 19; Latham & Watkins LLP with 17; Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz with 16; and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP with 13 deals.
• Top law firms representing investment advisers included White & Case LLP with nine deals; Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, ranked second, with seven. Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP; Greenberg Traurig LLP and Skadden, Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom LLP all ranked third with five deals.
• Top Delaware law firms included Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunell LLP and Richard, Layton & Finger PA both with 11 deals. Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP had two deals.
• Top investment advisers included Goldman, Sachs & Co. with 34 deals; Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan Chase & Co., each with 25; Morgan Stanley with 19; and Barclays Capital in fifth with 18 deals.
• Top proxy solicitors/information agents included Innisfree M&A Inc. with seven deals; D.F. King & Co. with five; Okapi Partners LLC with two; and MacKenzie Partners Inc. with one deal.
• The top public relations firms were Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher with 30 deals; Sard Verbinnen & Co. with 14; and Brunswick Group LLP with six. Abernathy MacGregor Group Inc. and Owen Blicksilver Public Relations Inc. both were ranked fifth with four deals each.

The full report is available online.

About The Deal’s M&A League Tables
Rankings include the names of lead M&A and/or corporate partners at law firms that represented the principals and investment advisers. Only deals involving a change of control of a target company with a market value of $100 million or more are included, and only when a key party involved is a U.S. company. Unless the target is a recognized stand-alone operating business, rankings will not include asset sales, unit sales, sales of subsidiaries, spin-offs or joint ventures. Deals with undisclosed transactions values are not eligible. The Deal’s M&A League Tables, which come out each quarter, are cumulative across the year.

About The Deal
The Deal is a media and relationship capital company providing over 100,000 users with business opportunities sourced from proprietary deal news and a relationship discovery tool. Law firms, investment banks, private equity and hedge funds use The Deal’s insight and analysis about potential and announced transactions to find their next deal and BoardEx’s service and database for building relationships. The Deal has offices in New York, London, Washington, D.C., Petaluma, CA and Chennai, India. For more information, visit www.thedeal.com.

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SOURCE TheStreet, Inc.