Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz (WLRK) and CMS have emerged as the leading legal advisers for mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the construction industry for the first half (H1) of 2025, as shown by GlobalData's recent league table.

According to the data, WLRK topped the rankings in terms of deal value by advising on transactions worth $19.8bn while CMS led in deal volume with 17 advised transactions.

GlobalData's analysis credits WLKR's top position to its involvement in three significant deals, two of which were billion-dollar agreements. Included in this is a notable transaction exceeding $10bn. This marked a significant leap from the company’s previous tenth position in H1 2024 by deal value.

GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, despite advising on only three deals, managed to top the chart by value in H1 2025. There was more than a three-fold jump in the total value of deals advised by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz during H1 2025 compared to H1 2024.”

Meanwhile, CMS maintained its leadership in terms of volume for a second consecutive year after being the top adviser by deal volume in H1 2024 as well.

Bose added: "CMS was the top adviser by deal volume in H1 2024 and managed to retain its leadership position by this metric in H1 2025 as well."

CMS was one of only two advisers that achieved double-digit deal volumes during this period.

In terms of deal value, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison secured the second spot with $17.3bn worth of advised deals. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett with $15.6bn and Ropes & Gray with $13.6bn took the third and fourth positions, respectively.

Sidley Austin completed the top five with advised deals amounting to $12.6bn.

For deal volume, Kirkland & Ellis followed CMS in second place with 12 deals advised. Latham & Watkins ranked third with nine deals while Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Baker McKenzie each managed eight transactions.

GlobalData’s league tables are based on the real-time tracking of thousands of company websites, advisory company 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.