By Sara Merken

March 10 (Reuters) - Leading New York dealmaker Eric Schiele has left law firm Kirkland & Ellis to join Paul Hastings on Monday as a leader of the firm's mergers and acquisitions practice.

Schiele recently co-led the Kirkland team that advised Cheez-It maker Kellanova in its nearly $36 billion acquisition by family-owned candy giant Mars.

His other clients have included AbbVie, Disney, Constellation Brands, Time Warner, Amcor and Wynn Resorts.

Schiele told Reuters a slump in M&A is likely temporary and should improve when the Trump administration's antitrust and economic policy agenda comes into clearer focus.

Uncertainty over policy and economic changes has cast a chill over the deal market, and the pace of U.S. M&A in the first two months of 2025 was the weakest since the financial crisis.

Schiele said the market is in a period of transition as it adjusts to Trump's moves on tariffs and trade. He said he had not predicted an immediate surge in deals with the change in administrations, despite the Republican president's promise of less regulation and a broadly pro-business stance.

"I think anybody who was expecting it to be a hockey stick change as soon as the sentiment of the regulators changed ... was destined to be a little bit disappointed," he said of the deal market.

Schiele spent the past seven years at Kirkland, which he joined in 2018 from Cravath, Swaine & Moore. At Paul Hastings, he will be a partner and global co-chair of the firm's M&A practice.

Kirkland, the world's largest law firm by revenue, is a top adviser on M&A deals. The firm was again the top principal adviser in the London Stock Exchange Group rankings in 2024 by deal value. It was also the top adviser on global announced deals by value among firms that advised any party in a transaction.

Paul Hastings, which did not rank in the top 25 of global deal advisers last year, came in 23rd among announced deals by value with any U.S. involvement. The firm's recent M&A deal work has included advising packaging products maker Pactiv Evergreen in a $6.7 billion acquisition by rival Novolex.

Schiele said he aims to expand large-scale M&A at Paul Hastings by making sure the firm attracts deal work from its existing clients in other practices.

A Kirkland spokesperson said the firm thanks Schiele for his contributions.

Among other M&A moves, Davis Polk & Wardwell on Monday hired Michael Diz from Debevoise & Plimpton, where he was a co-leader of the M&A practice and of its San Francisco office.