Below are the recently released Q2 & First Half 2020 SPAC IPO Legal League Tables
Methodology: Each law firm is given full credit for the IPO size to calculate Deal Volume. Additionally, Deal Count is further broken out into Issuer’s Counsel and Underwriter’s Counsel to give greater visibility into into legal assignments. All data is initially sorted and ranked by Deal Volume, but each column is further sort-able by clicking on the arrow keys in the header cell of each column.
Ranked by Volume
(All data is sort-able using the arrow keys located in the header cells)
1H 2020
| Rank | Law Firm | Volume ($mm) | Deal Count (Total) | Deal Count (Issuer's Counsel) | Deal Count (UW's Counsel) | Avg Size ($mm) | % Mkt Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP | 3,937.0 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 437.4 | 16.8% |
| 2 | Winston & Strawn LLP | 3,315.0 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 414.4 | 14.2% |
| 3 | Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP | 2,542.5 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 508.5 | 10.9% |
| 4 | Ropes & Gray LLP | 2,445.0 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 489.0 | 10.4% |
| 5 | Kirkland & Ellis LLP | 2,329.9 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 291.2 | 10.0% |
| 6 | Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP | 2,322.5 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 580.6 | 9.9% |
| 7 | Shearman & Sterling LLP | 1,472.0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 490.7 | 6.3% |
| 8 | Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP | 1,100.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1100.0 | 4.7% |
| 9 | Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP | 1,037.0 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 172.8 | 4.4% |
| 10 | Graubard Miller | 608.0 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 121.6 | 2.6% |
| 11 | Loeb & Loeb LLP | 412.4 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 68.7 | 1.8% |
| 12 | White & Case LLP | 305.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 305.0 | 1.3% |
| 13 | Greenberg Traurig, LLP | 299.0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 149.5 | 1.3% |
| 14 | Crowell & Moring, LLP | 200.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 200.0 | 0.9% |
| 15 | Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP | 200.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 200.0 | 0.9% |
| 16 | Sidley Austin LLP | 200.0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 200.0 | 0.9% |
| 17 | Tarter, Krinsky & Drogin LLP | 172.5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 172.5 | 0.7% |
| 18 | K&L Gates LLP | 172.5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 172.5 | 0.7% |
| 19 | Schiff Hardin LLP | 138.0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 138.0 | 0.6% |
| 20 | Blank Rome LLP | 100.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 100.0 | 0.4% |
| 21 | Scarinci & Hollenbeck, LLC | 57.5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 57.5 | 0.2% |
| 22 | Raiti, PLLC | 40.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 40.0 | 0.2% |
Q2 2020
| Rank | Law Firm | Volume ($mm) | Deal Count (Total) | Deal Count (Issuer's Counsel) | Deal Count (UW's Counsel) | Avg Size ($mm) | % Mkt Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP | 3,707.0 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 463.4 | 23.8% |
| 2 | Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP | 2,266.5 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 566.6 | 14.6% |
| 3 | Kirkland & Ellis LLP | 2,034.2 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 339.0 | 13.1% |
| 4 | Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP | 1,897.5 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 632.5 | 12.2% |
| 5 | Shearman & Sterling LLP | 1,242.0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 621.0 | 8.0% |
| 6 | Ropes & Gray LLP | 1,100.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 550.0 | 7.1% |
| 7 | Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP | 830.0 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 207.5 | 5.3% |
| 8 | Winston & Strawn LLP | 789.0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 263.0 | 5.1% |
| 9 | Graubard Miller | 366.5 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 91.6 | 2.4% |
| 10 | White & Case LLP | 305.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 305.0 | 2.0% |
| 11 | Loeb & Loeb LLP | 220.2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 73.4 | 1.4% |
| 12 | Crowell & Moring, LLP | 200.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 200.0 | 1.3% |
| 13 | Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP | 200.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 200.0 | 1.3% |
| 14 | Sidley Austin LLP | 200.0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 200.0 | 1.3% |
| 15 | Blank Rome LLP | 100.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 100.0 | 0.6% |
| 16 | Scarinci & Hollenbeck, LLC | 57.5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 57.5 | 0.4% |
| 17 | Raiti, PLLC | 40.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 40.0 | 0.3% |
Q1 2020
| Rank | Law Firm | Volume ($mm) | Deal Count (Total) | Deal Count (Issuer's Counsel) | Deal Count (UW's Counsel) | Avg Size ($mm) | % Mkt Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Winston & Strawn LLP | 2,526.0 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 505.2 | 32.2% |
| 2 | Ropes & Gray LLP | 1,345.0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 448.3 | 17.1% |
| 3 | Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP | 1,100.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1,100.0 | 14.0% |
| 4 | Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP | 425.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 425.0 | 5.4% |
| 5 | Greenberg Traurig, LLP | 299.0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 149.5 | 3.8% |
| 6 | Kirkland & Ellis LLP | 295.6 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 147.8 | 3.8% |
| 7 | Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP | 276.0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 276.0 | 3.5% |
| 8 | Graubard Miller | 241.5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 241.5 | 3.1% |
| 9 | Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP | 230.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 230.0 | 2.9% |
| 10 | Shearman & Sterling LLP | 230.0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 230.0 | 2.9% |
| 11 | Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP | 207.0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 103.5 | 2.6% |
| 12 | Loeb & Loeb LLP | 192.1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 64.0 | 2.4% |
| 13 | Tarter, Krinsky & Drogin LLP | 172.5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 172.5 | 2.2% |
| 14 | K&L Gates LLP | 172.5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 172.5 | 2.2% |
| 15 | Schiff Hardin LLP | 138.0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 138.0 | 1.8% |
Source: SPACInsider, Ranked by volume
This is has been an unusually active quarter, to say the least. And it has been particularly competitive in the Legal League. Notably, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP (“Skadden”), which only recorded one legal assignment in the first quarter, came on especially strong in the second quarter by registering five more legal assignments. Skadden took the top spot for the first half of 2020 with a combined six SPACs and total volume of $3.937 billion. Additionally, Skadden was split right down the middle with three SPACs as Issuer’s counsel and three SPACs as underwriters counsel.
But Winston & Strawn wasn’t far behind at $3.315 billion. Winston was counsel to eight SPACs total (six as Issuer’s counsel and two as Underwriters counsel), but if you recall, the Winston team left for White & Case, ahead of the end of the second quarter. So technically, even though White & Case made the rankings this quarter with just one SPAC, it actually originated at Winston. So really, Winston managed nine legal assignments. White & Case will surely rank well in the third quarter, but they definitely have some fierce competition from Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. (“Davis Polk”), Ropes & Gray LLP, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP, which ranked #3, #4, and #5, respectively for the first half of the year.
All three of these firms were neck and neck based on total volume and separated by roughly only $100 million each. However, while Davis Polk and Ropes & Gray were counsel to five SPACs each, Kirkland & Ellis tied Winston & Strawn to top the league based on deal count with eight assignments.
However, you also have to consider that Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP (“EGS”), Loeb & Loeb LLP were counsel to six SPACs apiece, and Graubard Miller had five. If we simply look at deal count, this is a very, very tight league. The difference being average deal size which affects the total volume rankings.
We have some VERY big SPACs set to IPO, such as Pershing Square Tontine Holdings, Ltd., at $3 billion, which will skew the volume rankings slightly, but keep an eye on deal count. It’s generally a better indicator for SPAC legal rankings since the fees are (for the most part) fairly similar regardless of deal size.
Looking forward, the third quarter promises to be even more competitive for the law firms as SPACs IPO at a furious pace. And with so many experienced firms competing for SPAC teams and underwriters, you can expect the league to further tighten as we head into the back half of the year.
You can find all of the published League Tables by clicking here.
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