Davis Polk & Wardwell hired John Douglas a partner in its financial institutions group. He will head its bank regulatory practice.

Douglas was general counsel of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. during the savings and loan crisis. He served there from 1987 through 1989.

In September, William Rifkin will join J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. as vice chairman of mergers and acquisitions, based in New York and reporting to global head of M&A, Jimmy Elliott. Rifkin was chairman of global M&A at Merrill Lynch & Co. and chairman of its fairness opinion committee.

Some deals Rifkin worked on include Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.'s $25.9 billion acquisition of Phelps Dodge Corp., Gold Kist Inc.'s $1.1 billion sale to Pilgrim's Pride Corp., Adidas-Salomon AG's $3.8 billion acquisition of Reebok International Ltd. and Cinergy Corp.'s $9 billion merger with Duke Energy Corp.

• On July 1, Goldman, Sachs & Co.'s Vesna Nevistic will join UBS as head of corporate development.
  
• Canaccord Adams said Giles Fitzpatrick will join as president of its U.K. operations, Canaccord Adams Ltd..
• GoldenTree Asset Management recently tapped Jan Kaass for its London office as director of marketing.