Ropes & Gray and Latham & Watkins emerged as the leading legal advisers for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the retail sector in 2025, ranked by deal value and deal count, respectively.

Figures compiled from GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database indicate that Ropes & Gray secured first place by value, providing counsel on transactions worth a combined $34.2bn.

Latham & Watkins headed the rankings by volume, having advised on 21 retail-sector deals over the year.

GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “Apart from leading by volume, Latham & Watkins also held the tenth position by value in 2025. Meanwhile, Ropes & Gray, which advised on one-third of the number of deals advised by Latham & Watkins, led the chart by value due to its involvement in high-value transactions.

“Five of the seven deals advised by Ropes & Gray in 2025 were billion-dollar deals* that also included a mega deal valued more than $10bn.”

Kirkland & Ellis took second place by total deal value, advising on transactions worth $33.5bn.

It was followed by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom on $26.2bn, Davis Polk & Wardwell on $24.9bn, and Hengeler Mueller on $23.7bn.

By deal count, Latham & Watkins was followed by CMS in second position with 18 transactions.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison ranked next with 14 deals, Jones Day advised on 13 deals, and Fasken Martineau DuMoulin completed the top five by volume with 11 mandates.

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 of the data, the company also seeks submissions of deals from leading advisers.