Robert W. Baird & Co. opened a Charlotte, N.C., office, where Brian McDonagh (left) joins as a managing director and co-head of mergers and acquisitions, and Joe Pellegrini (right) arrives as a managing director. McDonagh was most recently head of the industrial growth M&A group at Wachovia Securities LLC. Before that, he was co-head of global industrial M&A at a predecessor firm to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in New York. Pellegrini will focus on clients in the consumer sector.

Pellegrini, a former National Football League player, led the retail and soft goods investment banking practice at Wachovia. Before that, he ran the middle market consumer and retail practice at Lehman Brothers Inc.

Houlihan, Lokey, Howard & Zukin Inc. hired Kevin McMurchy as a managing director in corporate finance. As a member of the financial institutions group, he will report to Jim Murray. McMurchy has worked at Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, Kidder, Peabody & Co., Deutsche Morgan Grenfell and Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Ltd.

Specialist environmental investment firm Impax Group plc tapped Charlie Ridge as chief operating officer. He was a managing director in the finance division of Deutsche Bank AG, most recently serving as U.K. asset and wealth management chief financial officer. Ridge has also worked at SG Warburg and Ernst & Young.

Jeffrey Greenip joined Jefferies & Co. as a managing director in the financial sponsors group of the investment banking division. Greenip will focus on private equity and other financial sponsor clients. He spent the last decade at Bear Stearns Cos. Before Bear, Greenip worked at ING Barings Furman Selz LLC.

Perkins Coie LLP hired 13 Heller Ehrman LLP attorneys in Madison, Wis.

David Harth, David Jones and John Skilton join the intellectual property litigation practice as partners. Partner Timothy Burns joins the insurance coverage group. IP litigation associates David Anstaett, Shannon Bloodworth, Melody Glazer, Christopher Hanewiez, Lissa Koop, Autumn Nero, Sarah Walkenhorst and Jeffrey Walker join Perkins Coie along with patent specialist Theresa Gresl. Associate Eric Barber joins the insurance coverage group. Associate Shannon Bloodworth, who works closely with the Madison group, will join the Washington office.

Madison will become Perkins Coie's 15th office worldwide.

Washington's Gilbert Randolph LLP became Gilbert Oshinsky LLP as Jerry Oshinsky joined the firm to head its new Los Angeles office. He was a name partner at Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky LLP, where he founded the insurance coverage practice.

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP opened an office in Abu Dhabi. Natasha Kohne relocated from New York to be its managing partner. Corporate partners Lee Kolodny and Elisabeth Cappuyns relocated from Los Angeles and New York, respectively. And three associates from New York and London joined the new office. Akin Gump expects to expand the office to at least 20 lawyers within three to four years.

In New York, Nixon Peabody LLP named commercial litigation partner Aidan McCormack leader of its insurance and reinsurance practice. He previously served as deputy practice group leader.

Business law firm Bennett Jones LLP welcomed Andrei Marcu as a senior climate change and emissions trading adviser. Marcu was president and CEO of the International Emissions Trading Association and recently chief executive of BlueNext Environmental Exchange.

Blank Rome LLP hired Daniel Yonan as of counsel in its intellectual property litigation group, based in Washington. Most recently, Yonan was counsel at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.

George Schiavelli, a former U.S. district court judge for the central district of California, will join Jams in Los Angeles to mediate and arbitrate disputes in commercial, employment, intellectual property, securities and real property.

He was in private practice as a partner with Horvitz & Levy LLP from 1986 to 1994; a partner with Ervin, Cohen & Jessup LLP from 1976 to 1986; and with O'Melveny & Myers LLP from 1974 to 1976.

Hunton & Williams LLP promoted M. Christine Klein to counsel. Klein, based in Richmond, Va., is a member of the global competition practice group, focusing on antitrust matters, franchising and distribution disputes, business torts, intellectual property, general civil litigation and appellate advocacy.

Search firm Major, Lindsey & Africa LLC added Lindsay Smith and Robert Depew as managing directors in its associate practice group in San Francisco.

Smith was director of litigation support services at Kurtzman Carson Consultants, where she advised on electronic discovery federal compliance. Smith was a business litigation associate for five years in Los Angeles. Depew had practiced at Hanson Crawford, specializing in dissolution actions involving complex financial issues. He also covered labor and employment law at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP.