Nearly halfway through the 2020s, law firms might be stronger than ever. They're also more top-heavy, and more reliant on transactions than ever. And they've been on some kind of rollercoaster ride over the last two years. In 2023, worldwide deal flow reached its lowest point in a decade, and many firms sought refuge in "seemingly random" smaller deals. A year later, along with long-awaited interest-rate cuts, the "megadeal" has had a renaissance, with corporate leaders describing it as a demonstration of "the art of the possible."

But whether it was in the trenches of the middle market or at the apex of a $10 billion-plus negotiation, lawyers at these firms—Davis, Polk & Wardwell; Kirkland & Ellis; Latham & Watkins; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Sidley Austin; Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett; Sullivan & Cromwell; and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz—proved up to the task.