eFC Briefing: Catch Bad Guys

The FBI is looking for a few good financial managers, accounting analysts and auditors. Well, make that more than a few.

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If you're looking for a way to utilize your analytical skills and the Madoff story makes you hopping mad, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has a broad list of openings with your name on them. But you'd best act fast, because most of those career doors are set to shut on Jan. 16. The FBI's hiring blitz includes eight separate job classifications that require financial or accounting expertise. Most require an accounting degree, CPA or Certified Internal Auditor certificate plus accounting or auditing experience. Many sit near the top of the federal pay scale, with salaries up to $110,115.

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Several events for professionals "in transition," many free, take place in New York City over the next couple of weeks. Among them are a resume workshop this evening (Jan. 14), and free talks by professional coaches on networking, self-presentation and job-search strategy, and a discusssion of "Where the Jobs Are," led by a New York State Labor Department economist.

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Credit trading whiz Boaz Weinstein will have little trouble drawing investors to his new hedge fund, notwithstanding the crisis afflicting many fund groups. Weinstein and about 15 colleagues are set to leave Deutsche Bank early next quarter to start a new fund company. Prospective investors fund likely will focus on the profits the Weinstein's brought Deutsche over 11 years while rising to co-head of global credit trading.

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Citigroup and Morgan Stanley officially announced their joint-venture brokerage. But lest you were waiting for some kind of dust to settle, Citi also announced plans to focus its business on corporate clients and wealth individuals.

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The next-to-last domino has fallen: Bank of America's Ken Lewis rounds out the list of Wall Street chief executives who won't seek bonuses for last year. In an internal e-mail, Lewis said he'd asked the board of directors to award no bonuses to him or other senior executives for 2008. That makes five of the six biggest U.S. bank CEOs on the no-bonus list. The exception is Wells Fargo's John Stumpf. Many top executives of European bulge-bracket institutions won't get bonuses either.

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Robert McCann's exit as head of the financial adviser business at Merrill Lynch/Bank of America throws a new curve ball into what could become an extended battle for the loyalty of Merrill's vaunted retail sales force. The choice of Daniel Sontag as McCann's replacement will help limit any damage.

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Large law firms are hunkering down, following in their Wall Street clients' footsteps. Common tactics include reshuffling staff among practice areas, lowering pay and, in the worst cases, layoffs. Many firms are moving resources into bankruptcy and restructuring, an area that's suddenly booming, the Financial Times says.

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Securities industry employment in the U.S. edged higher last month, according to Labor Department data. That result is at odds with ubiquitous reports of layoffs and limited hiring, and with the direction of overall U.S. payroll employment, which declined sharply in December for a fourth straight month.