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Clifford Chance partner Tim Soutar is returning to London from Hong Kong to bolster the firm's Asian capability in London. He will also assist with the coordination of the firm's global projects group, headed by Rodney Short.

Belgian firm Liedekerke Wolters Waelbroeck & Kirkpatrick, France's Siméon & Associés and Wessing Berenberg-Gossler Zimmerman Lange of Germany have entered into a cooperation agreement. The firms will establish a European Economic Interest Grouping, called the Conference of European Lawyers. This will form the basis of future cooperation in all fields of law.

Jeremy Xiao, who in August became the first Chinese citizen to qualify as a Hong Kong solicitor, will become a partner in the Hong Kong office of UK firm Herbert Smith.

US firm Rogers & Wells has lost the head and 12 other members of its Latin American group, which specializes in cross-border work and project finance. The head of the group, Roberto Dañino, together with two other partners, Paul Dwyer and Jorge Alers, have left the firm for rival Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington DC. Dañino is a Peruvian lawyer and former general counsel of the Inter-American Investment Corporation. "We think that the market ahead of us is going to be dependent on DC-based mutilateral organizations such as OPIC and Eximbank and we had to be based in the headquarters of a top firm in the city," says Dañino.

Toronto-based Goodman Phillips & Vineberg has launched its third office in Asia, opening in Singapore in December. Goodman Phillips has had an office in Hong Kong for some 25 years and is the only Canadian firm with an office in Beijing.

The new presence of foreign law firms aggressively staking out territory in Germany is putting pressure on local firms. A second wave of mergers seems to be beginning. Samantha Wigham reports

• Clifford Chance's London office has lost its head of corporate finance, Peter Brooks. Brooks has left to become general counsel for one of his clients, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell. He has worked at Clifford Chance for 28 years.

John Taylor, general counsel at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, London, talks to Diana Bentley

The contract for Laibin B, China's first 100% wholly foreign-owned build-operate-transfer (BOT) power plant, was formally agreed in Beijing on November 11 1996. Under the HK$4.57 billion (US$600 million) contract, GEC Alsthom, an Anglo-French engineering group, and Electricite de France (EDF) will jointly control the company undertaking the contract. EDF will hold a 60% stake and GEC, 40%. The project is scheduled to be completed sometime after 1999, whereupon EDF and GEC will operate the power plant to recoup their investment before the power plant reverts to the Guanxi government at the end of the term.

The single market has promoted growth, employment and competition, but the EU still has some way to go towards meeting the target of creating a set of truly common rules. This is the theme of a major new report to be presented by the Commission at the next European Council meeting in December. The report took two years to complete and gives an overview of the impact and effectiveness of the single market since its inception nearly four years ago.