Semiconductor M&A Counsel in 2026: Hong Kong Ahead of San Francisco

A general counsel at a chip or electronics company who is lining up semiconductor M&A lawyers should first look at where the sector's legal work is actually done. Sartori & Partners data show that lawyers in Hong Kong worked on 14.9% of electronics and semiconductor deals in the 12 months to October 2026, more than lawyers in San Francisco at 12.8%. Beijing appears on the same list at 9.9%, just ahead of Silicon Valley at 9.6% and Palo Alto at 8.0%. New York carries the largest share, 38.5%, with Washington, DC next at 15.7%. Each share is measured on the deals where a lawyer's city is known, and a deal counts in every city whose lawyers worked on it, so the figures overlap and are never added together. For a company planning to buy or sell, the reading is simple: expect lawyers in Asia on the matter, not only lawyers in California and New York.

The city list counts every electronics and semiconductor deal, capital markets work and disputes included, so it shows where the sector's lawyers sit on a matter rather than where its M&A alone is done. Even read that way, the order is unusual. In the Sartori & Partners deal record, Hong Kong ranks behind only New York and Washington, DC, and two of the ten cities on the list, Hong Kong and Beijing, are in Asia. London adds 11.4%. The Bay Area, often taken as the sector's home, splits across three entries: San Francisco at 12.8%, Silicon Valley at 9.6% and Palo Alto at 8.0%, each below Hong Kong.

This changes the first staffing question a buyer asks. Put it to every firm on the shortlist: which partner would run the Asian side of the deal, does that partner sit in Hong Kong or Beijing, and how is the work divided across time zones with the US team? A firm whose sector record rests on its US offices may still suit a purely domestic acquisition, but it should say so at the pitch, not after signing.

Set beside technology and software, the semiconductor city mix leans away from the US and London. New York handled 38.5% of semiconductor deals and 38.7% of technology deals, close to identical. Washington, DC carries 15.7% against 19.6%, and London 11.4% against 15.0%. San Francisco shows the widest gap, 12.8% against 18.1%, a difference of 5.3 points. Boston, Chicago and Palo Alto also sit lower for semiconductors. The table keeps only the cities present on both lists; Hong Kong and Beijing are on the sector's list alone, so they do not show in it.

The lesson for a chip company is that a technology deal team is not by default a semiconductor deal team. Every US and London share on the sector's list is lower than its technology counterpart, while two Asian cities make the sector's list. When a firm offers its technology deal record as proof of sector depth, ask how many of those matters involved its lawyers in Hong Kong or Beijing, and who led them.

M&A is the smaller part of the sector's legal work. Corporate and M&A lawyers worked on 29.0% of electronics and semiconductor deals, 229 deals over 12 months, while capital markets lawyers worked on 52.5%, 1.8 times as often. Across all dated deals the two practices sit close together, capital markets at 26.4% and corporate and M&A at 23.3%. Technology runs the other way, with corporate lawyers on 47.8% of its deals and capital markets lawyers on 24.0%. The narrower M&A deal type covers 20.5% of the sector's deals. A deal can carry several practices and many carry none, so these shares overlap and are not a split of the sector.

So a firm's semiconductor ranking leans on its capital markets work, since capital markets lawyers sit on more than half of the sector's deals, 52.5%. The corporate share is still above the market's, which makes the sector a real but secondary source of M&A work for any one firm. Ask for the acquisitions and sales the proposed partners closed for electronics and semiconductor companies, listed apart from the sector's capital markets matters.

Demand in the sector is climbing faster than in the practice. Electronics and semiconductor deals rose 33.9% year on year, from 601 in the 12 months to September 2025 to 805 in the 12 months to September 2026. Corporate and M&A deals across every sector rose 9.5%, from 10,198 to 11,170, near the rise of 10.6% for the whole deal record. Technology deals held flat (+4.6%) over the same windows, from 3,136 to 3,279. The sector count covers all its deals, so it does not isolate semiconductor M&A; Sartori & Partners publishes no trend for that pair.

The bench is also on the move. Lateral moves of corporate and M&A lawyers between firms rose 15.8%, from 2,532 to 2,933 over the same windows. That counts lawyers changing firms, not deals, and it runs beside the sector's growth without explaining it. For a buyer the point is timing: with sector deals up 33.9% and corporate lawyers switching firms more often, confirm that the partner who pitches will lead the work through closing, and bring counsel in before a sale process opens.

Ticket size sets a separate bar. Where a value was disclosed, on 24.4% of electronics and semiconductor deals, the median was $650 million. Across corporate and M&A deals the median disclosed value was $315 million, disclosed on 17.7% of them, and in technology $250 million. The sector's median is 2.1 times the practice's. It includes capital markets deals, so it sizes the sector's legal work rather than its acquisitions alone, and a median taken on a minority of deals is a rough size, not a price list. Read with that limit, the Sartori & Partners figures still point to large matters: staff a semiconductor deal for the scale of a large transaction, with regulatory review planned from the first week.

No firm list exists for semiconductor M&A on its own. The first list below ranks advisers on all electronics and semiconductor deals, capital markets and disputes included; the second ranks advisers on all corporate and M&A deals in every sector. Latham & Watkins heads the sector list in the 61-100 band of deals over 12 months, with Davis Polk & Wardwell second in the 41-60 band.

Checked name by name, five firms appear on both lists: Latham & Watkins (1st on corporate work), Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (3rd), DLA Piper (5th), Kirkland & Ellis (2nd) and Cooley (7th). The other five on the sector list, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, King & Wood Mallesons, Freshfields and Clifford Chance, rank on the sector's work without a place in the corporate top 10. Four of those five, all but Davis Polk & Wardwell, are not in the technology top 10 either, so a shortlist copied from a technology ranking would leave them out.

The overlap firms pair sector volume with corporate volume and make a sound start for a sizable acquisition. For the sector-only names, ask to meet the corporate partners who would run your deal and to see their recent acquisitions, because a sector rank built on every type of matter says little about M&A depth on its own.

Plan the deal team around where the work is done. Hong Kong lawyers worked on 14.9% of the sector's deals against 12.8% for San Francisco, so a team with no partner in Asia is a choice that needs a reason. Separate M&A from the rest: corporate lawyers sit on 29.0% of sector deals and capital markets lawyers on 52.5%, so ask each firm for its semiconductor acquisitions, not its sector total. Book early: sector deals rose 33.9% against 9.5% for corporate work. Budget for size, with a median disclosed sector deal of $650 million. Start the shortlist with the five firms on both lists, then add one sector-only name that can show partners in Hong Kong or Beijing who have closed acquisitions.