The bankruptcy and creditors' rights partner, who leads the practice in Houston, arrives from Spencer Crain Cubbage Healy & McNamara PLLC. Before that, he worked at Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP.

Grace has been debtor counsel for Home Fragrance Holdings Inc., NIP Co., NorthernStar Natural Gas Inc., Pearville LP and Westbury Community Hospital LLC; and represented bondholders of the City of Camp Wood, Texas, Forman Petroleum Corp. and OpTel Inc.

Eugene J. Geekie Jr. will chair the bankruptcy litigation practice of Freeborn & Peters LLP after joining the firm.

The Chicago bankruptcy, reorganization and creditors' rights partner had been an attorney at Schiff Hardin LLP for more than 20 years. Geekie concentrates on representing secured and unsecured lenders and also advises bankruptcy trustees, creditors' committees and court-appointed receivers. He has represented acquirers in the Chicago Hudson LLC and Sylvest Farms Inc. cases.

Alvarez & Marsal LLC has bolstered its public sector services group with six professionals, including senior director Michael Imber.

Imber, last a principal in Grant Thornton LLP's state and local government advisory services practice, focuses on workouts, bankruptcies and middle-market finance. He recently advised the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority and a Midwestern city on financial matters, and Imber has helped municipal transit authorities restructure concession contracts with a distressed media company. He also counseled an unsecured creditor of Jefferson County, Ala.

Before working at Grant Thornton, Imber was a senior vice president at Centre Insurance Co., a director in the business recovery services practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and a commercial loan officer at Citibank NA and predecessor Chase Manhattan Bank.

Distressed-debt and special situations investment firm Bayside Capital Inc. has added Ahmed Hamdani and Duncan Priston.

The London managing directors arrive from hedge funds Trafalgar Asset Managers Ltd. and Strategic Value Partners LLC, respectively, where they managed Trafalgar's distressed credit fund and served as SVP's head of European trading.

Hamdani, with more than 10 years of experience in the European distressed market, will head Bayside's noncorporate distressed investment team. Priston, also a 10-year veteran of the European distressed market, will lead the firm's noncontrol distressed corporate debt investment team. He served in several capacities at Morgan Stanley and Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin Inc. before joining SVP.

Tuvi Keinan has moved to the London office of Brown Rudnick LLP.

The real estate and restructuring partner handles cross-border restructuring and finance issues. He most recently was head of European real estate restructuring at Morgan Stanley. Before that, he was chief financial officer for cross-jurisdiction restructuring, financing and hedging and U.K. chief investment officer.

Keinan practiced at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP and Clifford Chance LLP before joining Morgan Stanley in 2006.

Nelda Connors has joined investment bank FocalPoint Partners LLC and will head the firm's industrials coverage from Chicago.

Connors has been president and CEO of Atkore International and vice president of Eaton Corp. Before that, she worked in the auto industry at Ford Motor Co., Chrysler LLC and Toyota Motor Corp. supplier Mogami Denki Corp.

Craig R. Graff has shifted to Rally Capital Services LLC, where he will help expand the early-stage restructuring and turnaround practice of the financial advisory firm. In addition, Rally Capital has opened a St. Louis office with senior financial consultant Hayden M. Parks Jr.

Graff, commercial and industrial projects manager, previously was a partner at Silverman Consulting LLC, where he advised debtors Builders Plumbing & Heating Supply Co. and Rockford Products Corp. He also has served as CFO for an agribusiness and an accounting professional concentrating on turnaround matters.

Parks, meanwhile, has worked at Collateral Evaluation Services Inc., Buckeye Consulting LLC and Heartland Bank.

RSM Tenon Group plc has named Chris Ratten head of corporate recovery. Ratten has advised asset-based lenders, banks and small and medium enterprises at RSM for the past 14 years. His assignments include serving as administrator for Phoenix Chemicals Ltd.

Eric A. Liepins of the Law Offices of Eric A. Liepins PC has trumped his peers in becoming the hottest bankruptcy lawyer for the six months ended Sept. 28.

Liepins added nine cases, topping three attorneys that each added six. Liepins' new work includes handling proceedings for dating site operator True Beginnings LLC, which filed for Chapter 11 on Aug. 1 following a spat with landlord SP III 909 Lake Carolyn Parkway LP, as well as Richardson, Texas, apartment building owner BNC Frances Villas LP, which won confirmation of its reorganization plan on Sept. 26.