Weil ties Kirkland atop 9fin table as it plans to dissolve

Weil Gotshal & Manges and Kirkland & Ellis tied for first in 9fin's Q3 league table for completed European restructuring and liability management engagements, with 12 each in the first nine months of 2026. The table was published Nov. 3, five days after Weil said it plans to dissolve.

Willkie ranked first for new mandates with 31 new deals across the nine months, eight of them in the third quarter. Milbank and Kirkland shared second for the nine months at 23 each, according to 9fin. Gibson Dunn placed second for the quarter with seven new engagements. Akin Gump and Kirkland tied for third in Q3 with six each. Weil took on 10 new engagements over the three quarters, one of them in Q3. The intake came even as 9fin reports a steady exodus of lawyers from Weil's London restructuring team since spring.

The table measures completed engagements, not current staffing, so the open due-diligence question for a creditor group hiring either firm is which partner will run the file through closing.

9fin counts deals with at least £/€50 million of term debt and a stressed element, spanning liability management exercises, out-of-court and court-supervised restructurings and stressed A&E. The rankings rest on 9fin's reporting and information the firms supplied.

Among completed deals, 9fin credits Weil with advising bondholders in the lender takeover of Atalian, the French business services company, and with advising lenders to Air Baltic, the Latvian airline that received DIP financing in a Chapter 11 process. Kirkland advised the new money provider in Aston Martin over the summer and closed Accell, the Dutch bicycle company that entered bankruptcy in August.