Here’s how Christopher Keefe, the newly appointed head of Nixon Peabody’s corporate practice, describes last year’s M&A market: “Imagine you have a really nice car, and you are driving down the road, and there is enough space for everyone. Then you pull over to get gas, and you fill up with rocket fuel and get back on the road,” he said. “That was 2018.”

There’s no doubt 2018 was a good year for M&A, with deal values surging past $3.6 trillion for the year, the highest mark in a decade, according to Pitchbook.