Private equity-backed and strategic M&A will continue to be robust for the rest of 2010 and 2011 "if the financing markets can stay stable," says Audra Cohen, a partner in Sullivan & Cromwell LLP's mergers and acquisitions group, who this summer advised on Carlyle Group's $3.8 billion buyout of vitamin and nutritional supplements maker NBTY Inc. and Blackstone Group LP's $4.7 billion buyout of electric power producer Dynegy Inc.