Balen Joins U.S. Trust as Vice President

Brad L. Balen has joined the Costa Mesa office of U.S. Trust as a vice president and senior banking officer. He was previously with Union Bank of California, where his positions included vice president and relationship manager in the private bank group.

* Thomas Kelly has joined the board of directors of Epicor Software Corp. in Irvine. He is chairman, president and chief executive of Blaze Software Inc.

* Lars Kvan has joined BuyNow.com in Aliso Viejo as vice president of finance. He was formerly part of the Corporate Development group at Eaton Corp. in Cleveland and worked in finance and accounting for Honeywell International.

* Janice Arrington has been named to the new position of film commissioner by the Orange County Film Commission, a subcommittee to the Media Alliance of Orange County. She is a member of the Director’s Guild of America and the Orange County Film Commission Advisory Board.

* Sean O’Connor, Greg Labate and Karen Imbernino have been made partners in the Orange County office of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP. O’Connor’s practice focuses on real estate and eminent domain litigation, business torts and commercial litigation. Labate is a labor law attorney and Imbernino is a member of the Corporate and Securities department.

* J. R. Wetzel has been named president of the SoCal chapter of the National Assn. of Industrial and Office Properties. He is chief operating officer and executive vice president of operations for Pacific Gulf Properties Inc.