If you were looking for evidence of the Firm’s overall success in achieving its 2020 Strategy, a glance at the M&A league tables would be a great starting point.

Global Head of M&A John Reiss explains: “Our 2020 Strategy recognized that all elite firms have robust M&A practices, so one of the key objectives of our 2020 Strategy was dramatic growth in M&A. The league tables reflect the increasing prominence of our M&A practice as a result of our 2020 Strategy.

“While growth in M&A was only one element of that strategy, our success in growing M&A has been an important driving force behind our strategy’s success.”

The Firm is now regularly in the top 10 in M&A tables across the globe and frequently in the top five, performing well in both the value and volume tables.

For the first quarter of 2021, White & Case ranked first by value for global M&A in both Thomson Reuters and Mergermarket’s M&A League Tables.

According to Thomson, the Firm advised on 124 announced deals in the first quarter, valued in excess of US$176 billion.

In the Americas, White & Case ranked first by value and sixth by volume, advising on 70 announced deals, valued in excess of US$152 billion; and in Europe, the Firm ranked fifth by value and second by volume, advising on 64 announced deals, valued in excess of US$55 billion.

Bloomberg’s M&A League Tables (only Bloomberg ranks cross-border M&A), noted that White & Case ranked third by value for all cross-border M&A activity for the first quarter.

As John told Reuters for their article on first quarter league results: “We’re very pleased to be ranked number one by deal value both globally and in the US for the first quarter of 2021, which has been the busiest quarter for US M&A in recent memory.

“The ranking is a testament to the breadth and depth of our M&A practice across public and private transactions, our Private Equity practice, the strength of our SPAC team and the interest many of our non-US clients have in growing their US businesses.

“The ranking is, of course, entirely a function of the confidence many of our clients have in us and our success in implementing our 2020 Strategy, which included to dramatically grow our M&A practice in the US through a combination of internal promotions and lateral hires.”

We’ve also shown incredible continuity by being the only law firm that ranked in the top 15 by deal count in 2001 that also featured in the top five in 2020 according to The American Lawyer.

John says: “It’s critical for us to do well in league tables. They are very strong marketing tools that impact our M&A brand and overall brand and provide guidance to current and potential clients as to the relative M&A strength among law firms across jurisdictions.

“We can claim we’re strong in M&A, but if we don’t appear high in the league tables, people won’t believe it.

“The M&A league tables show the world that we are as good as we know we are.”

John adds: “In the past, White & Case may have been viewed as a finance firm. Now, potential clients appreciate that we are also a powerhouse M&A firm. That’s an important achievement and it has made M&A one of the engines driving the Firm’s overall success. M&A is important to developing corporate relationships and supporting multiple practice groups.

“If clients come to you for M&A, it naturally leads to work in other practice areas.”

Equally, our success in M&A during the 2020 Strategy period has been driven in no small part by a remarkable cross-border, cross-practice team effort.

John says: “We couldn’t have achieved what we have without the ‘friends of M&A’ – people across the Firm from different offices, practice areas and industry groups who contribute critically to our M&A successes. They are often the reason we get the deals in the first place.

“We can’t provide an excellent M&A service to our clients without being united, which is one of our three Firm essential values. So our colleagues in areas such as antitrust, FDI, finance, capital markets, litigation, real estate, environmental, employment, tax, IP and technology transactions have been critical to the success of M&A over recent years.”

The Firm’s growth in M&A is particularly remarkable because we perform well both in terms of the value and volume of the deals we complete.

“That’s something that only two of our competitors, Latham and Kirkland, can claim,” says John. “And, while many firms go up and down the league tables or perform well in certain markets, what sets us apart over the past few years is our consistency over time and excellence across jurisdictions.”

Our success is also driven by the skill, dedication and enthusiasm of our Business Development team and our unrelenting commitment to reporting every deal we complete, something that’s been driven by Director of Business Development for M&A Oscar Buitrago’s team and executed by lawyers across the world.

John says: “It’s no exaggeration to say that positions in the league table can be decided by one or two deals, so we have to report every single deal.

“Enormous credit goes to Oscar’s team for their unbelievable efforts to encourage our lawyers to report deals and to embed a culture where reporting deals has become part of the checklist lawyers complete at the end of a transaction.”

Oscar adds: “Thanks to everyone for their commitment and dedication in promptly reporting their deals. It’s really made a difference in our league table standing and at the same time benefits our pitch efforts to win more work with the infrastructure in place to access our deal list easily.”

While the M&A league tables are helpful for external and internal recognition, they are also a good tool for identifying areas for improvement.

John says: “As we look forward to our next five-year strategic plan, the league tables can help us see not only where we’re doing well, but also where we need to continue to grow.

“For instance, we can see that, while we’re doing well on value verses competitors such as Latham and Kirkland, we do still lag behind them on the number of deals completed, which is strictly a function of them having more M&A lawyers than we do.

“That’s one factor that drives our ambition to continue to grow the size of our M&A practice in the US dramatically over the next five years, both through internal promotions and lateral hires.

“Overall, we’re proud to see the part M&A has played in the Firm’s successful 2020 Strategy, and we expect our contributions to increase in the future.”