In January 2010, Richard Rosenbaum, a president of Greenberg Traurig LLP, will succeed Cesar Alvarez as CEO. Rosenbaum (pictured) joined the firm in 1985. Chairman Larry Hoffman and Matthew Gorson, a president, will remain in their posts.

Alvarez will remain as executive chairman. He joined the firm in 1973 and was named CEO in 1996, assuming the role from Hoffman, a founder of the firm in 1967.

In New York, Mayer Brown LLP recruited Clifford Schoenberg and Kenneth Pierce as co-heads of its insurance and reinsurance industry group in the U.S. Schoenberg was head of the insurance and reinsurance group at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, where he spent eight years. Pierce comes to Mayer Brown from Morgan Stanley, where he was co-head of the reinsurance solutions practice in the global capital markets division.

Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. hired Peter Kapp for the firm's investment banking department as a managing director in its financial institutions group, based in New York. Kapp was a director in FIG at Citigroup Inc. At Citi, he worked on mergers and acquisitions, as well as on public and private offerings of debt and equity securities.

David Sussman joined Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP's New York office as of counsel, focusing on sports and entertainment law. At MTV Networks Co., Sussman was executive vice president, general counsel and head of business affairs from 1997 to 2007. Before that, Sussman served for eight years as executive vice president, general counsel and chief operating officer of the New York Yankees.

John DeQ Briggs is joining Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider LLP as managing partner of its Washington office and co-chair of its antitrust group alongside John Harkrider. Briggs was chairman of Howrey LLP's antitrust practice.

Arnold & Porter LLP announced that Claudius Sokenu joined the firm's securities enforcement and litigation and white-collar criminal defense practices as a partner, working from New York and Washington. Sokenu was a co-action group leader of the securities enforcement and investigations group at Mayer Brown LLP.

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP launched a distressed real estate asset services practice. Led by Peter Miller in New York and Peter Gurfein in Los Angeles, the 15-member group advises on issues related to the credit crunch, the subprime mortgage crisis, declining real estate values and the surge in foreclosures.

Allen & Overy LLP announced that David Horner joined its U.S. projects, energy and infrastructure practice as a senior counsel in New York. He focuses on public-private partnerships and joins from the U.S. Department of Transportation, where he served as deputy assistant secretary for transportation policy and chief counsel of the Federal Transit Administration.

Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP added Mark Hamelburg as counsel in its healthcare practice in Washington. He worked at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

A team of patent litigation attorneys headed by Breton Bocchieri joined Seyfarth Shaw LLP's intellectual property group in Los Angeles. Before this, Bocchieri was a partner and co-chair of the IP practice litigation group at Thelen LLP. Brien Kirk and Nguyen Huu Nguyen arrive as associates.

Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP appointed Peter Flägel as counsel in the corporate and securities practice in New York. Before beginning his U.S. legal career as an associate at Carter Ledyard, Flägel was an associate at Esche Schümann Commichau in Hamburg.

In Paris, Nixon Peabody LLP took on Jean-Norbert Pontier as a partner in the global finance practice. Pontier leads the finance practice in France and joins the firm from Lovells LLP. Previously, he worked at Sidley Austin LLP.

Norman Leventhal is now a partner in the communications group of Holland & Knight LLP, resident in Washington. Leventhal was previously the sole founding partner at Washington-based Leventhal Senter & Lerman PLLC, which he managed from 1982 to 2000.

On Feb. 2, Michael Garcia will join Kirkland & Ellis LLP's litigation practice as a partner in New York. Garcia is the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Blank Rome LLP named six partners: Richard Adago, matrimonial; Linsey Bozzelli, mergers and acquisitions and private equity; Donald Gamburg, employment, benefits and labor; John Lucian, business restructuring and bankruptcy; Samantha Wallack, real estate; and Mark Zolfaghari, product liability, mass torts and insurance.

Restructuring, consulting and financial advisory firm AlixPartners LLP named six managing directors: Kevin Carmody, Brian Fox, Alain Guillot, Hirofumi Hirano, Karl Roberts and Keith Williamson. The firm also named 40 directors.