UBS' McCann hires team of former Merrill bankers

* Bob Mulholland, Brian Hull and John Brown join UBS

* UBS seeks to stop net client outflows

NEW YORK, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Robert McCann, the new head of the U.S. wealth management unit of UBS AG (UBSN.VX) (UBS.N), hired a team of former bankers of Merrill Lynch to help him turn around the battered division of the Swiss bank.

McCann, a Merrill Lynch veteran who led the brokerage's wealth management business until early this year, hired Bob Mulholland, who spent 25 years at Merrill, and Brian Hull, who recently held responsibility for the brokerage's private bank and investment group.

UBS also hired John Brown, who held several positions in trading, prime brokerage, clearing, and operations at Merrill Lynch and UBS Securities, and Paula Polito, who headed the marketing department at Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management, McCann said on Monday in an internal memo.

The new hirings will be part, along with other senior executives of UBS Wealth Management Americas, of a Renewal Team in charge of defining a strategy to turn around the division.

The U.S. wealth management division of UBS was hit by net client outflows of 15.7 billion Swiss francs ($15.7 billion) in the last two quarters as the bank fought a bruising tax fraud case with U.S. authorities.

As well as the U.S. tax dispute, which UBS settled in August, the Swiss bank has also been hit by executive departures, bad bets on auction-rate securities and writedowns. (Reporting by Juan Lagorio; Editing by Gary Hill)