Gregory Fleming, former president and chief operating officer of Merrill Lynch & Co., was appointed as a senior research scholar and distinguished visiting fellow of the Center for the Study of Corporate Law, both at Yale Law School. He will teach, write and conduct research related to the global financial crisis.

From 2003 to 2007, Fleming was executive vice president and co-president of the global markets and investment banking group. Fleming, who got his law degree from Yale in 1988, was a principal at Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. before joining Merrill as an investment banker in 1992.

Fleming was to become head of global corporate and investment banking, including commercial banking, at the combined Bank of America Corp. and Merrill Lynch.

Similarly, last summer, Goldman, Sachs & Co.'s head of investment management, Edward Forst (pictured left), left to become executive vice president of Harvard University, which he graduated from in 1982. And Frank Yeary (right) left as global head of Citigroup Inc.'s mergers and acquisitions practice to become vice chancellor for the University of California, Berkeley, from which he graduated in 1985.

Former Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin, who is director and senior counselor to Citigroup Inc., said he decided not to stand for re-election as director at Citi's annual meeting and will retire at the end of his tenure.

Merrill Lynch & Co.'s Singapore-based chief Asia strategist, Mark Matthews, reportedly left the firm. He joined Merrill in 2005. Other recent high-profile departures include Robert McCann and Greg Margolies.

McCann was vice chairman and president of the prized global wealth management division at Merrill. Margolies joined Ares Management LLC as a senior partner and head of its capital markets group. At Merrill, he was a managing director, head of global leveraged finance and capital commitments and a member of the executive committee of the investment banking group.

Citing both the economy and its Merrill acquisition, Bank of America Corp. said in December it would cut about 30,000 to 35,000 jobs over three years.

RBC Capital Markets hired John Sorice from J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. as a managing director and senior investment banker in its U.S. financial sponsors group. From New York, he reports to Dave Daniels and Joe Jabes, co-heads of the group. Sorice spent 22 years at J.P. Morgan, where he was most recently a managing director in the financial sponsors group, covering both mid- and large-cap sponsors.

RBC recently named Richard Barker as head of global investment banking, Australia. Barker spent 10 years at N.M. Rothschild & Sons (Australia) Ltd., where he was executive director, mergers and acquisitions. RBC said it would continue to recruit for its U.S. investment banking and capital markets platforms.

Barclays Capital appointed Tim Kitchen as a managing director and head of investment banking, Canada. He will continue to cover Canadian natural resources clients and report to Joseph Gatto and Ros Stephenson, co-heads of corporate finance.

Kitchen was previously head of the Calgary, Alberta, investment banking team. He joined Barclays in September from Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and, before that, spent 16 years at CIBC World Markets Inc.

In December, New York managing director John Plaster was named co-head of alternative energy banking at BarCap alongside Menlo Park, Calif.-based managing director Amy Smith. Plaster came to Barclays as part of its acquisition of Lehman Brothers' North American investment banking and capital markets businesses. He joined Lehman in 1996. Also in December, BarCap announced its leadership team for mergers and acquisitions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. See our Dec. 2 column for those names.

Separately, in Japan, Barclays hired 10 investment bankers. Hideaki Sunaga joined as a managing director and co-head of the investment banking division in Japan. Sunaga was a member of the board and executive vice president at Nihon Trim Co. Ltd. Previously, he worked for Nomura Group for over 20 years, where he had been head of European investment banking, based in London.

Takumi Tanaka is a managing director and head of the financial sponsors group, Japan. He previously held that title at Lehman Brothers Japan for four years. Rei Kyogoku is a director and head of the financial institutions group, Japan. He was at Lehman Brothers Japan as a senior vice president in the financial institutions group. Masaya Kubota, a director in the financial sponsors group, also worked a Lehman. In October, Barclays got about 100 bankers in Japan from its Lehman acquisition, launching its equity research and sales operations there.

George Stamboulidis was named managing partner of Baker & Hostetler LLP's 66-attorney New York office. Stamboulidis succeeds Paul Eyre, who held the post since the office opened in 2001.

Over the last seven years at Baker, Stamboulidis has served as litigation coordinator for the office, is a member of the policy committee and operating group and heads the white collar defense and corporate investigations practice. Stamboulidis came to the firm in 2001 after a 13-year career as a federal prosecutor in New York and New Jersey.

Irving Picard, court-appointed trustee in the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, recently joined Baker's New York office.