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Year in review By the M&A Practice Group of Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP, Toronto

Rachel joined Gilbert & Tobin in 1998 and became a partner in July 2001, working with the M&A Group. Before that, Rachel spent three years with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission, gaining extensive experience in corporate regulation, and one year as in-house counsel for an electricity retailer and distributor.

The leading international rating agencies are facing an investigation by US lawmakers that could lead to more regulation over their activities.

In late March the European Parliament passed laws recognizing a pan-European prospectus, clamping down on insider trading and introducing tougher rules for bank insurance.

The UK has moved to safeguard London's future as a financial hub by protecting securitizations from revamped insolvency rules in the UK Enterprise Bill, published at the end of March. The government has listened to the concerns of banks, lawyers and accountants that the Bill could threaten the future of securitizations and other capital markets transactions in the UK by removing the right for secured creditors to appoint administrative receivers. Losing this right would make it hard for secured creditors to enforce security over the assets of a bankrupt company ahead of unsecured creditors.

Under the terms of its entry to the WTO, China is committed to allowing greater access to its banking sector. Despite the slow inroads being made by foreign institutions, however, rules remain in place that will slow their progress, as Lester Ross of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, Beijing, explains

In a recent decision regarding the battle for Australia’s Normandy Mining, the Takeovers Panel made its first decision on break fees and has released its reasoning. Baden Furphy and Tony Damian of Freehills’ Melbourne and Sydney offices discuss the ruling and its implications

Growth in the Canadian securitization slowed dramatically last year but there are grounds for optimism in favourable treatment by the courts and the growth of products such as extendable commercial paper as a liquidity substitute. Martin Fingerhut of Blake, Cassels & Graydon, Toronto, looks at the market’s future

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft has hired former Shearman & Sterling partner Stephen Mostyn-Williams to build a dedicated banking and finance practice in Europe.

Shearman & Sterling opened its first office in Italy on March 18 in Rome and plans to open another in Milan. Partners Michael Bosco and Robert Ellison, together with Italian lead associate Domenico Fanuele, will lead the Rome operation. The office initially comprises about 10 lawyers with room for 25. And the firm is hunting for more. "We are actively looking for an Italian partner [from another firm]," said Ellison last month.