King & Wood Mallesons has again cemented its spot at the top of the M&A leaderboard, taking out M&A Legal Adviser of the Year at the 2025 Mergermarket Awards and ranking #1 for Australasian M&A in Q3 2025.

The firm advised on A$36.80bn (US$23.96bn) worth of deals across 82 transactions, keeping its crown from Q3 last year.

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer trailed close behind with A$34.74bn (US$22.62bn), while Ashurst claimed third at A$23.74bn (US$15.46bn).

Allens landed in fourth, with Gilbert + Tobin rounding out the top five.

FY25 saw the firm lead on a string of market-defining deals across energy, infrastructure, tech and financial services, with KWM leading the charge on the back-end of the year.

Here’s how the firms stack up:

KWM also topped the charts for deal count, taking gold with 82 transactions — more than any other firm. Up 22 deals from Q3 ‘24.

Thomson Geer took the silver at 69 deals, followed by MinterEllison (64 deals) and HSF Kramer (56 deals).

Corrs tumbled from 1^st to 10^th, with a difference of -47 deals from last year.

Here’s the deal count table:

Source: Mergermarket

Check out the full Mergermarket report here.