Partners at Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Latham & Watkins topped MergerLinks’ 2025 M&A rankings in a year of mega-deals in France, while the top two partners in the previous year’s ranking recently changed firms. Weil partner David Aknin sits atop the 2025 ranking, after leading on about €14.16 billion ($16.72 billion) across five deals, according to MergerLinks data. He’s closely followed by Latham & Watkins’ Gaetan Gianasso, who gained six spots from 2024 to come in at No. 2, leading on about €13.48 billion across six deals for 2025. MergerLinks said that in determining the rankings, it “considered transactions where the lawyer acted as the lead legal adviser to one of the transaction parties.” Deal value is calculated as the sum of the consideration paid by the acquirer for the equity stake in the target plus the value of the target’s net debt, where applicable. MergerLinks said this year’s rankings offer “a concrete view” of a “year marked by mega-deals and subdued overall volume.” Aknin, making his first appearance in the Top 10, in an interview described the 2025 market as “patchy,” with some very active “pockets” and others more “stop and go.” Sectors for which transactions remained very active and where investors were ready to pay premiums included animal and human health, food, particularly B2B ingredients companies, insurance, and wealth management, Aknin said. “There will be some big deals for these assets offering investors good visibility. In other areas, investors may prefer to wait.” In spring 2025, Aknin and his team advised French multinational animal health company Ceva Santé Animale in a €9.2 billion “recapitalisation” financing round bringing in new investors. Aknin called the transaction “one of the biggest buyout deals in Europe last year.” Leading on the bidder side of that deal, Gianasso and his Latham team advised PSP Investments, the Canadian public sector pension investment manager. Other firms advising on the bidder side included Dechert for Lyon-based PE firm Archimed, led by partner Alain Decombe, who made No. 3 in the 2025 ranking with €9.74 billion in two deals. Gianasso and Aknin and their teams also led buy-side advisers in French private equity firm Ardian’s $5.643 billion acquisition of a controlling stake in European corporate insurance brokerage Diot-Siaci. Latham advised the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, while other sellers included Bpifrance and Cathay Capital, among others. “Sponsors’ appetite for transactions stayed resilient in 2025, despite a complex geopolitical environment and shifting political dynamics in France,” Gianasso said in an email. He described a year “marked by a clear flight to quality, with sponsors focusing on trophy assets across a broad range of sectors, particularly the most dynamic ones, such as software, healthcare, and business services.” Clifford Chance partner Laurent Schoenstein, who also worked on the Ceva deal, came in at No. 4 in the ranking, leading on around €8.63 billion in deal value, according to MergerLinks. Moves and Grooves The No. 3 in MergerLinks’ 2024 table, Clifford Chance’s Benjamin de Blegiers, doesn’t appear in this year’s ranking, but he led a four-lawyer, three-partner, energy and infrastructure PE team that left for Latham a few weeks ago. De Blegiers was global co-head of Clifford Chance’s infrastructure sector. No. 5 in this year’s ranking (for 2025), White & Case partner Franck De Vita, and his team led on $5.92 billion on two deals, according to MergerLinks. Meanwhile, former Freshfields partner Hervé Pisani, who was No. 4 in MergerLinks 2024 top 10, fell to No. 8 in the 2025 ranking, leading on about €5.16 billion in deal value while still at Freshfields. Pisani moved to White & Case in January. Bookending Pisani in this year’s ranking, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton’s Charles Masson was No. 7. and Paul Hastings’ Sebastien Crepy was No. 9. No Kirkland This Year MergerLinks French top 10 advisers ranking for 2024 was topped by Olivier Assant of Bredin Prat, with Kirkland & Ellis partner Vincent Ponsonaille at No. 2. Neither of those two advisers made this year's top 10, although Bredin Prat managed to stay in the ranking with partner Benjamin Kanovitch coming in at No. 6 for 2025, leading on about €5.86 billion across two deals. Bredin was joined by another French firm, Scotto Partners, whose partner Adrien Badelon came in at No. 10.