The firm also tapped Dinyar Devitre as a special adviser. Devitre served as senior vice president and chief financial officer of Altria Group Inc. from 2002 to 2008. He was executive vice president at Citigroup Inc. and Citibank in Europe from 1998 to 2001. Devitre is a director and chairman of the audit committee at Western Union Co. and a director at Altria Group and SABMiller plc.

RBC Capital Markets recruited seven bankers from Bear Stearns Cos. Kathy Costine, Rae Boylan, Nelson Luria, James LaVigne, Marcella Finkel, Evie Wang and Sonal Bose join RBC's municipal finance healthcare practice. Costine, Boylan and Luria join as managing directors, LaVigne as a director. Finkel and Wang are vice presidents and Bose is an associate.

Costine had managed Bear Stearns' not-for-profit healthcare practice since 1992. Previously, she headed Kidder, Peabody & Co.'s health and higher education finance group for more than a decade.

Matt Roux will join UBS Investment Bank's prime brokerage group as executive director and co-head of U.S. securities lending. He will run the division with Mike Kelleher, who was promoted to co-head. Both will be based in New York and report to Chris Hagstrom, joint global head of equity finance within equities prime brokerage. Roux joins UBS from Deutsche Bank AG, where he was a director in both swaps and securities lending. He began his career at Citadel Investment Group LLC.

Collins Stewart plc expanded its healthcare research division, adding Salveen Kochnover as a senior analyst and Brent Kelly as a senior associate. Kochnover joins from Jefferies & Co., where she was a senior biotechnology analyst. Kelly worked at Jefferies as a senior research associate in biotechnology and at Prudential Equity Group LLC. Both are based in New York.

William Blair & Co. LLC hired Steven Bernard as director of merger and acquisition market analysis, reporting to Mark Brady, principal and head of M&A. Bernard was director of M&A market analysis at Robert W. Baird & Co.; vice president in charge of M&A research at U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray; and a sell-side equity research analyst for 12 years.

Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. enlisted Patrick Keeley, Chris Shebby, Kerry McKeon and Julien Smythe for its investment banking group. All four were members of the energy and natural resources practice at FBR Capital Markets Corp., where Shebby and Keeley served as co-heads of investment banking.

Thomas Rosén joined independent mergers and acquisitions advisory firm Sagent Advisors Inc. as a managing director in New York. Previously, he was a managing director and head of natural resources M&A at Banc of America Securities LLC.

Before that, Rosén worked with Chase Securities from 1987 to 2000, where he founded and served as head of utility and power M&A.

On Jan. 1, Troutman Sanders LLP and Ross, Dixon & Bell LLP will combine, creating a 750-attorney firm, which will retain the Troutman name. David Gische, Ross, Dixon & Bell's managing partner, and Mike Whitton of the San Diego office will join Troutman's executive committee. The combined Washington offices will be led by Kevin Fitzgerald, now managing partner of Troutman's Washington office.

Axiom Legal hired five attorneys. In New York: Rajiv Vrudhula from Baker & Hostetler LLP; Benita Das of Translation LLC; and Boston IP Law Group's Rajesh Vallabh. In San Francisco, Alinaghi Ghiassi comes in from Heller Ehrman LLP; and Brian Kinard joins from GeoFarm Inc.

Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis LLP tapped Fred Greguras as a partner in Palo Alto, Calif. A member of the corporate, mergers and acquisitions and securities practice, Greguras arrives from Fenwick & West LLP.

Also in New York, the firm brought in Eric Prager and Israel Kornstein as partners in its intellectual property and labor and employment practices, respectively. Prager joins from Darby & Darby PC, while Kornstein was a shareholder at Akerman Senterfitt LLP.

Intellectual property law firm Marshall, Gerstein & Borun LLP hired Jeffrey Salmon as special counsel, focusing on patent prosecution, strategic counseling, transactional matters, licensing and litigation. Salmon was a principal with Welsh & Katz Ltd. in Chicago.

Jackson Lewis LLP opened an office in Memphis, its sixth new office in as many months. James Mulroy II will be partner and resident manager of the new office. Kelly Gooch joins as partner and John Norris will be of counsel. All three were at Memphis-based Kiesewetter Wise Kaplan Prather plc.

Intellectual property and commercial litigator Jonathan Pink joined Bryan Cave LLP as counsel in Irvine, Calif. Pink comes to the firm from Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP.