White & Case and Baker McKenzie were the leading mergers and acquisitions (M&A) legal advisers across the retail industry during the first three quarters (Q1-Q3) of 2026 by value and volume, respectively, according to GlobalData, the parent company of Retail Insight Network.
GlobalData's Deals Database analysis indicates that White & Case attained the highest position by transaction value after advising on deals totalling $9.92bn.
According to the legal advisers league table, Alston & Bird ranked second by value, advising on transactions worth $2.65bn.
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett followed in third place with $2.62bn, ahead of Anderson Mori & Tomotsune with $2.43bn and A&O Shearman with $2.18bn.
Over the same period, Baker McKenzie advised on the highest number of transactions, taking first place by deal volume with 11 deals.
White & Case secured second position by volume, having advised on nine transactions.
A&O Shearman followed with eight deals while Mayer Brown and Latham & Watkins each advised on seven deals.
GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “Baker McKenzie was the only adviser to hit a double-digit deal volume during Q1-Q3 2026. It registered notable growth in the number of deals advised by it, which helped its ranking by volume rise from 28th position during Q1-Q3 2025 to the top position during Q1-Q3 2026.
“Similarly, White & Case saw its ranking by value improve from 15th to the top position. There was more than a two-fold jump in the total value of deals advised by White & Case, primarily driven by its involvement in a deal valued at around $9bn for Circle K Polska’s acquisition of Zabka Group.”
GlobalData’s league tables are based on the real-time tracking of thousands of company websites, advisory firm websites and other reliable sources available in 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.
