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UK regional firm Pinsent Curtis has head-hunted a senior litigation partner from international firm Linklaters & Paines. Graeme Brister replaces Paul Downing as managing partner of the London office after Downing left to join Price Waterhouse last month. Says Christopher Styles, a litigation partner at Linklaters who has worked with Brister for 17 years: "To an outsider this move to a regional, domestic firm must look jolly odd. The key is that he wants to get out of the bigger jobs for international clients and move into management." It is said that Brister wanted to become managing partner at Linklaters, but Styles explains: "This is not sour grapes. He no longer wanted to spend so much time in practice."

US firm Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly will merge with Californian intellectual property (IP) firm Poms, Smith, Lande & Rose on January 1 1997. The new firm will have one of the largest IP practices in the US and hopes to rank in the top 10 firms for trade marks issued. The firm will have 11 offices.

The Italian Treasury is selling a further tranche of shares in the oil and gas company ENI with a L5.1 trillion (US$3.36 billion) international offering, part of Italy's largest privatization. The sale of the 8.75% stake in the company is being jointly led by Istituto Mobiliare Italiano and CS First Boston.

Baker & McKenzie is opening an office in Munich early next year to complement its Frankfurt and Berlin offices. Three partners will manage the office, assisted by three associates. Walter Henle and Stephan Spehl join from the Frankfurt office, which will remain the leading office in Germany. Uwe Steininger, a tax and mergers and acquisitions lawyer, joins the office as partner from Bissman & Partner. Says Nigel Carrington, managing partner at the London office: "Munich is a major German centre, and we are already strong in Frankfurt and Berlin. It is an obvious move for us to make."

Garrett & Co, the UK firm in the legal network associated with Arthur Andersen, has made a series of senior lateral hires from City firms and is seeking to set up a Hong Kong office in the next two months.

US firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy has revamped its Asian practice after the departure of project finance partner Glenn Gerstell to the Washington office.

Charles Toy, vice president and general counsel of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, Washington DC, talks to Richard Forster

The Central Bank of Russia recently issued Instructions giving foreign investors greater scope to invest in rouble-denominated bonds. By Mira Davidovski and Robert Chernoff of Salans Hertzfeld & Heilbronn, Paris and Moscow

Since UK firm Allen & Overy announced the appointment of David Slade as a project finance partner in the New York office (see Insides, IFLRev, October), three other lawyers have joined Slade at Allen & Overy, effectively wiping out the Russian practice of US firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy.

With small home markets, Benelux lawyers have been among the first in Europe to consider cross-border mergers and alliances. Their successes will be a model for others to follow. Paul Lee reports