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 — 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.