Oct 3 (Reuters) - Leading U.S. and international law

firms are advising on fewer but larger corporate deals compared

to last year, continuing a trend in worldwide mergers and

acquisitions activity.

The value of global announced M&A deals during the first

nine months of 2024 reached $2.3 trillion, a 16% increase

compared to the same period last year and the "strongest opening

nine-month period for deal making since 2022," the London Stock

Exchange Group ( LDNXF ) said in its rankings of M&A legal advisers

released on Thursday.

The number of M&A transactions hit an eight-year low through

the third quarter, however, with more than 35,500 deals

announced, LSEG said. That's a 20% drop compared to one year

ago.

Chicago-founded law firm Kirkland & Ellis was again the top

principal adviser in LSEG's rankings for the period by deal

value, working on 556 global announced deals worth $295 billion.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom edged out Kirkland as

top adviser on global announced deals by value among firms that

advised any party in a transaction, including deals that were

withdrawn or called off. The firm worked on a total of 159 deals

worth $331 billion.

Kirkland and Skadden were on opposite sides of one of the

biggest deals of the year -- candy giant Mars' $36 billion

purchase of Cheez-It maker Kellanova ( K ). Skadden advised Mars while

Kirkland advised Kellanova ( K ).

Boston-founded Goodwin Procter took the No. 1 principal

adviser spot by number of deals in the LSEG data, just ahead of

Kirkland. Goodwin worked 603 deals worth $91 billion.

Latham & Watkins served as the principal adviser on 458

global announced deals valued at $273 billion during the first

nine months of the year, ranking second by deal value and third

by volume. It advised building materials supplier SRS

Distribution in its acquisition by Home Depot ( HD ) and Skydance Media

on its acquisition of Paramount Global ( PARAA ), one of Hollywood's

oldest film studios.

"We're still in a market that has some headwinds," said Mark

Bekheit, global vice chair of Latham's M&A practice. He noted

that the U.S. Federal Reserve only just cut interest rates last

month while government agencies continue to scrutinize deals.

Some dealmakers told Reuters last week that they are

expecting a slowdown in the fourth quarter as companies put off

big deals until after next month's U.S. elections. But Bekheit

said he still expects significant M&A activity in the final

quarter.

"The number of reported deals is not really representative

of the level of activity we're seeing," Bekheit said. "For every

deal that's announced, there's quite a few deals happening in

the background."

Other M&A partners were also hopeful for a strong end to the

year.

"The M&A pipeline looks robust, but we all need to keep an

eye on how the election and geopolitical events generally could

affect the M&A market as we head into the fourth quarter and

into 2025," Kirkland dealmaker Michael Weissner said in a

statement.

David Barkus, who co-leads Holland & Knight's corporate, M&A

and securities practice, said in a statement he anticipates an

"increase in deal activity regardless of the victor" in the U.S.

election.