The cooling of the global mergers and acquisitions market continued in the third quarter of this year, with an accompanying slowdown in the M&A advisory work that helps power many of the world’s largest law firms.

The combined value of global announced M&A deals through the first nine months of 2022 reached $2.81 trillion, down from more than $4.2 trillion for the same period last year, according to the latest figures from Refinitiv.

New York-founded Sullivan & Cromwell once again advised on the largest share of that total, working on $373 billion worth of announced deals in the first three quarters of 2022, according to Refinitiv. That is down about 40% from this time last year, when the firm had handled more than $619 billion in deals.

Goodwin Procter advised on the most global announced deals this year: 819 transactions through September, with a combined value of $98 billion. In the same period last year, the Boston-founded firm worked on 887 deals worth $147 billion.

In all, 20 of the top 25 M&A legal advisors ranked by Refinitiv saw year-over-year declines. Some firms saw their combined deal values drop 50% or more, according to the Refinitiv data.

Rising interest rates have forced lenders to pull back from financing large deals. And despite a soaring dollar, U.S. companies have not been snapping up foreign targets amid ongoing geopolitical tensions.