Paul Hastings Continues Momentum of Premier M&A Platform With Addition of New York Partner

NEW YORK – Continuing the strategic expansion of its premier global M&A platform, Paul Hastings LLP announced today that Kristiina Leskinen has joined the firm as a partner in New York.

Leskinen, who joins from Paul Weiss, focuses on a broad range of M&A matters and complex transactions for public and private companies and leading private equity firms. Her clients are a mix of leading corporates and PE sponsors on strategic and sponsor-backed deals, including Advance, Bellisio Foods, General Atlantic, Grain Management, H.I.G. Growth, Hunt Companies, Kohlberg, Roark Capital Group, RXO, Time Warner Cable and Yokohama Rubber.

“Strengthening our strategic M&A and private equity teams by adding premier talent like Kristiina is core to our strategy,” said firm Chair Frank Lopez. “Kristiina brings extensive top-of-the-market M&A experience and an impressive deal list representing corporates and leading private equity clients across diverse sectors. Her arrival positions us to continue to scale in New York and globally in M&A as we take on greater volume and market share of our clients’ most significant transactional matters.”

Over the past three years, Paul Hastings has added 25 partners to its preeminent global M&A and private equity platforms, including Eric Schiele, one of the leading corporate M&A lawyers of his generation, and elite M&A lawyer Eduardo Gallardo. These strategic additions have helped fuel the firm’s strong M&A trajectory driving record deal count in both strategic and PE M&A as well as the incredible trajectory of the synergistic shareholder activism defense practice to #2 in the league tables for Q1 2025 (FactSet), up from #9 in 2023.

“I am excited to join Paul Hastings at this pivotal moment in the evolution and momentum of its growing M&A practice,” said Leskinen. “The caliber of talent the firm is attracting across its global platform — and particularly in M&A and private equity — is impressive, and I look forward to collaborating with my new colleagues in delivering the top-tier service and counsel that clients expect.”

About Paul Hastings

With widely recognized elite teams across 17 core practices, Paul Hastings is a premier law firm with a culture of excellence focused on providing intellectual capital and superior execution globally to the world’s leading investment banks, asset managers and corporations. For more information, visit www.paulhastings.com.