Omaha-based Berens & Tate will combine its practice with workplace law firm Jackson Lewis LLP. Labor and employment lawyer Kelly Berens (pictured) becomes managing partner for the Omaha office. He is joined by partners Joe Dreesen, Chris Hoyme, Tim Loudon and Chad Richter, and associates Ross Gardner, Michael Mortensen, Jill Poole and Ken Wentz.

Blackstone Group LP expanded its international corporate mergers and acquisitions and restructuring advisory network, opening a Paris office and hiring Jean-Michel Steg as a senior managing director.

Steg spent the last five years as head of banking for France and Belgium at Citigroup Inc. Earlier, he spent 16 years with Lazard in New York and Paris. He then joined BZW investment bank as a managing director and moved to Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Inc. as head of investment banking France before taking on the same role for Goldman, Sachs & Co. in France.

Credit Suisse Group hired Jonathan Grundy to head its energy business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He will join the London office in July. Grundy was global head of energy and power investment banking at Bank of America Corp.'s Merrill Lynch unit. He worked at Morgan Stanley for 16 years, most recently as global co-head of the power and utilities group.

In June, Mark Echlin will join Credit Suisse's investment banking department as a managing director and head of industrials, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Based in London, he will report to Jim Amine, who is global co-head of investment banking alongside Marc Granetz. Echlin will oversee groups responsible for seven sectors, including basic materials and infrastructure. He will report to the global head of that sector, Joe Reece.

Echlin will also arrive from Merrill Lynch, where he was a managing director and head of industrials for EMEA. Before joining Merrill in 2007, he spent 16 years at Morgan Stanley, most recently as co-head of basic materials.

UBS Investment Bank said Maurice Marchesini and Sean Minnihan will join its investment banking department as managing directors in its financial institutions group. They will report to Gary Howe and Halle Benett, Americas co-heads of FIG. Marchesini, who will work from Los Angeles and cover Midwest and West Coast bank clients, joins from Morgan Stanley, where he was head of financial services investment banking for the Western U.S. region. Previously, he was head of Latin America investment banking at Merrill Lynch & Co.

Minnihan will be based in New York and cover financial technology and capital markets clients. He was with Banc of America Securities LLC, where he was head of the financial technology and securities group. Before that, he was a vice president in the financial institutions group at Goldman, Sachs & Co. Minnihan began his career at Salomon Smith Barney, where he worked in the mergers and acquisitions and financial institutions groups.

Separately, Martin Liechti was reportedly placed on paid leave. Liechti was UBS' top private banker for the Americas. The bank recently reached a $780 million settlement regarding an Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into its handling of alleged tax evaders.

Cowen Group Inc. hired David Bohn and Grant Miller for its capital markets group as managing directors. Based in New York, they will report to Jonathan Biele, head of capital markets.

Bohn joins from Citigroup Inc., where he was a managing director in the private placements group. Previously, he was co-head of private capital at First Albany Capital Inc. Miller was a managing director in the equity capital markets group Banc of America Securities LLC. Before that, he worked at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and PaineWebber Inc.

All seven lawyers at Coral Gables, Fla.'s Fieldstone Shear & Denberg, LLP will join Arnstein & Lehr LLP on April 1. Fieldstone specializes in complex commercial, corporate, real estate, condominium, domestic and international tax matters. Joining Arnstein as partners are Ronald Fieldstone, David Shear and Michael Denberg.

K&L Gates LLP welcomed Joseph Aragonés as a partner in its corporate/mergers and acquisitions practice, covering cross-border transactional matters. He joins K&L Gates in Paris from Dechert LLP.

Separately, the firm added Michael Hinckle as a partner in the food and drug practice, based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Hinckle rejoins K&L Gates from Synthon Pharmaceuticals Inc., where he was a vice president and general counsel since 2003.

Roger Stark, a corporate and projects lawyer experienced in the energy and infrastructure sectors, joined Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP as a partner. He arrives in Washington from K&L Gates LLP.

Bryan Minier joined SmithAmundsen's bankruptcy and creditors' rights practice group in Chicago. Previously, he was in-house counsel for a gaming company and worked as an associate for Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP.