At Goldman, Forst will be replaced by senior strategy officer Tim O'Neill and Marc Spilker, chief operating officer for the investment management division.

In related news, Frank Yeary is leaving as global head of Citigroup Inc.'s mergers and acquisitions practice to become vice chancellor for the University of California, Berkeley, in August. Yeary graduated from UC Berkeley in 1985. Raymond McGuire, co-head of investment banking for Citi, will become the M&A chief until a replacement is found.

Jefferies & Co. appointed Alec Ellison as co-head of investment banking. Ellison, chairman of the technology, media and telecommunications investment banking effort, will partner with existing co-heads Chris Kanoff and David Weaver. Ellison, based in New York, joined Jefferies in 2003 as part of the firm's acquisition of Broadview International, which he joined in 1988 and was appointed president of in 2001.

Ellison will join Kanoff in leading the U.S. investment banking practice. Weaver, also president of Jefferies International Ltd., is focused on the European and Asian businesses.

Leerink Swann LLC hired Adam Berger and Daniel Lepanto for its mergers and acquisitions group, and Marc Grasso for the corporate finance group.

Berger comes in as a managing director and head of M&A. He was a managing director and head of healthcare M&A for Citigroup Global Markets Inc. Lepanto joins as a managing director from Cowen and Co. LLC. Grasso joins as a managing director and head of West Coast investment banking from Morgan Stanley, where he was an executive director in the healthcare group.

Philadelphia-based Janney Montgomery Scott LLC said Thomas Ferraro joined the firm as a managing director and head of institutional equity sales. He reports to Jordie Maine, head of equity capital markets. Ferraro spent most of his 25-year career with Credit Suisse Group.

Investment management firm First Quadrant hired Edgar Peters as a director of global macro investment research, reporting to Max Darnell, partner and chief investment officer. Previously, Peters spent 23 years at PanAgora Asset Management in Boston, where he was the global strategist and CIO of macro strategies.

Natixis Global Asset Management LP named Paul Anderson as vice president of its institutional services division. Anderson joins NGAM LP from Bank of America Corp., where he was vice president of institutional sales for Columbia Management.

In New York, Collins Stewart plc added Brian White as senior analyst, focusing on China and the electronics supply chain industry. Before Collins Stewart, White was a managing director at Jefferies & Co.

John Andrews is now a managing director at CIT Commercial & Industrial, providing financial advisory and capital raising services to industrial companies in the chemicals, plastics and materials sectors. Andrews was previously a managing director in the investment banking group at Bear, Stearns & Co.

Shareholder Marty Dakessian and associates Aleen Khanjian and Shiraz Simonian joined Akerman Senterfitt's corporate practice in Los Angeles. All focus on state and local taxation, and arrive from Dakessian Law Firm.

Based out of New York and Miami, immigration attorney Barry Gleen joins the firm as of counsel. Gleen hails from Alston & Bird LLP, where he directed the immigration practice in New York.

Howrey LLP said patent litigator Jason White joined its Chicago office as a partner in the intellectual property group from Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione. White joins Howrey a week after Scott Mendeloff and Gabriel Aizenberg joined the firm's Chicago litigation practice.

Independent futures brokerage R.J. O'Brien & Associates LLC named Kimberly Lynch as its corporate general counsel. Lynch joins RJO from Bank of America Corp.

Lynch served as senior vice president and associate general counsel of LaSalle Bank Corp., where she headed the legal department's regulatory and corporate affairs group in North America.

Sidley Austin LLP elected the following partners in New York: Jonathan Brose, tax; Nicholas De Baun, litigation; Bindu Donovan and Todd Krause, intellectual property litigation; Stuart Koonce, investment funds, advisers and derivatives; Michael Madigan, insurance; Xiaowen Qiu, structured finance and securitization.