(Reuters) - After a breakout year for blank-check IPOs in 2020, investors are pacing to make 2021 an even bigger one for special purpose acquisition company deals.

According to a Monday report from Refinitiv, as of the end of February there have been 70 SPAC mergers globally this year – six times as many as during the same period last year.

In dollar terms, the value of SPAC mergers hit $144 billion in the same period, according to Refinitiv, with Davis Polk & Wardwell leading the law firm rankings for combined deal values and Latham & Watkins handling the greatest number of transactions.

February alone saw 50 global SPAC acquisitions, the highest monthly tally of all time, according to the report. The combined value of February deals was $108.6 billion, also an all-time record.

March, meanwhile, is already off to a strong start. Rocket Lab USA Inc announced Monday that it's going public through a deal with SPAC Vector Acquisition Corp that values the company at $4.1 billion. Rocket Lab tapped Goodwin Procter to advise on the deal, with Kirkland & Ellis representing Vector.

Investors turned to SPAC IPOs – acquisitions of operating business by public shell companies that are listed for no other reason – as a "cheaper and faster way to take a company public" during the COVID-19 crisis, said Taylor Weaver, a Latham associate who practices in the firm's M&A and private equity groups. He said that the "sense of urgency" from companies to complete transactions caused a spike in SPAC deals at the end of 2020.

Weaver said he doesn't expect deal volume to hit a dead end any time soon, despite worries that SPAC transactions may be riskier for investors as the practice expands.

After Latham, the firms advising on the most SPAC deals so far this year are Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Kirkland & Ellis. Latham and Skadden most recently advised on a merger between air taxi company Joby Aviation and blank-check firm Reinvent Technology Partners. The $6.6 billion transaction marks Latham's 17th and Skadden's 14th SPAC deal this year. Kirkland & Ellis has advised on at least 12 blank-check transactions this year.

Measured by transaction amounts, Skadden and Latham & Watkins are the second and third top law firms for SPAC work this year behind Davis Polk, which handled deals worth a combined $40.4 billion through February. Skadden's total was $38.8 billion, while Latham & Watkins' deals totaled $36.2 billion, according to Refinitiv figures.

Weaver said that although there is a new presidential administration, he doesn't expect regulatory changes to outweigh "investor appetite" this year.

SPAC deals "probably won't be as busy as the last quarter, but they'll still be here" as we get further into 2021, Weaver said. "It will probably be more busy than they were in 2019 and 2020."