Client industry · November 2026
Industrial Manufacturing: who advises the sector
Dated deals for industrial manufacturing clients over the last 12 months, the practices and firms behind them, and how lawyers with this focus moved.
The last 12 months: November 2025 to October 2026
- 985
- Dated deals, 12 monthsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- +3.2%
- Year on yearSettled 12-month windows
- $750m
- Median disclosed value
- 487
- Distinct clients
What the data show
From November 2025 to October 2026, Sartori & Partners recorded 985 dated deals for Industrial Manufacturing clients. On settled windows the deal count went from 937 to 967 (+3.2%), which we read as flat. The deal market as a whole moved +10.6% over the same windows.
By practice, Corporate & M&A is involved in 45.3% of these deals and Capital Markets in 28.7%. By deal type, M&A is involved in 40.0% of these deals and Capital markets in 28.4%.
Deal value was disclosed on 18.9% of them; where disclosed, the median was $750 million. 487 distinct clients appear across the window.
Latham & Watkins ranks first among advising firms, in the 21-40 band; the full top 10 follows as ranks and bands.
Lawyers whose work centers on Industrial Manufacturing changed firm 21 times in the same window. Partners were 57.1% of those moves, against 27.7% across the lateral market. Year on year those moves changed -12.5%.
For a company in Industrial Manufacturing, the adviser table shows where sector experience sits, which is where an in-house hire is most likely to come from.
Firms by rank and band
Each firm appears as a rank and a band, never an exact count, and only with at least 10 moves in the window.
| Rank | Firm | Deals (band) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Latham & Watkins | 21-40 |
| 2 | Kirkland & Ellis | 21-40 |
| 3 | Davis Polk & Wardwell | 21-40 |
| 4 | Jones Day | 21-40 |
| 5 | CMS | 21-40 |
| 6 | Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher | 21-40 |
| 7 | Freshfields | 21-40 |
| 8 | Linklaters | 11-20 |
| 9 | Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath | 11-20 |
| 10 | White & Case | 11-20 |
Related monitors and reports
Deal types
Other industries
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Up one level
Working with us
Reports
- Few Lawyers Specialize in Manufacturing: Recruit From the Deal Bench
Lawyers who carry manufacturing as their focus rarely change firms, and the ones who do are mostly partner-level trial lawyers. A manufacturer hiring for deal work should recruit from corporate and capital markets lawyers in the cities where the sector's deal work is done, New York first, and from the wider flow of lawyers moving in-house.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - How Manufacturers Use Counsel: M&A at 2.1 Times the Market's Share
M&A runs at 2.1 times the market's rate in industrial manufacturing deals, staffed by corporate lawyers; more of their deals are handled with lawyers in Frankfurt and Munich than in most sectors. No single firm dominates the adviser list.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026
Edition November 2026. Window: November 2025 to October 2026. Source: Sartori & Partners, from public law-firm announcements, firm websites and professional profiles, checked monthly. Methodology. Spot an error? [email protected].
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