Corporate M&A lawyers began 2009 braced for the worst year in memory. And that, with few exceptions, is exactly what they got.
How bad was it? Overall, legal advisory deal value was off 34 percent in 2009, to $646 billion. On the firm front, some of the traditional M&A titans fared the worst. Heading the casualty list were Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Sullivan & Cromwell. In 2008 Skadden dominated our rankings, working on 91 deals with at least one U.S. principal, totaling an impressive (for the times) $309 billion. In 2009 the firm worked on just 48 transactions for principals, worth $127 billion. S&C posted even worse year-to-year numbers: just 23 principal representations totaling $42 billion in 2009, down from 45 and $214 billion in 2008.
