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AT&T has announced its intention to acquire Vanguard Cellular Systems. The acquisition package is worth US$1.5 billion in cash, stock and US$600 million of debt. The deal is due to be completed in the first quarter of 1999, subject to approval by shareholders and the regulatory authorities.

Spanish firm Uria & Menéndez has added 20 lawyers to its Madrid office by absorbing rival Bufete Armero. Managing partner Rodrigo Uria says of the new lawyers: "In practical terms they are two teams. One is a corporate, capital markets, finance team, which is in principal the same thing as we are already doing here, reinforcing our capabilities in this area. The other team is a team of litigators. Litigation is the rising star at Uria & Menéndez." Three Bufete Armero lawyers will become Uria partners: Coloma Armero and Luis Vidal, both corporate lawyers, and Javier Ruiz, a litigator. In July of this year Armero lost two tax partners to another of Spain's big firms, Cuatrecasas. Bufete Armero had been struggling since the death of founder Jose Maria Armero three years ago.

Lex Mundi, the international association of law firms, has decided to change its policy of excluding firms in New York, London, Washington DC, California, Texas and Illinois. It is now seeking one of the leading firms in each location to join its members. Washington DC's Steptoe & Johnson LLP is the first firm to take advantage of Lex Mundi's policy change to join the international alliance.

The decision of the UK High Court which threw the use of Chinese walls in professional firms into doubt has been overturned. The Court of Appeal has removed the injunction from accountant KPMG which barred it from acting for the Brunei Investment Agency on an investigation into the Agency's former activities. Woolf MR, giving the judgment of the court, said that the approach to such a case should be: to determine the existence of confidential information which might harm a former client; to determine whether there was a risk of that information being disclosed; and whether the former fiduciary relationship was so strong that the court should intervene with an injunction. These issues were to be determined on the facts of each case.

Australian firm Allens Arthur Robinson has opened a new office in the Lujiazui Pudong New District of Shanghai. It is the first international firm to move into Shanghai's new financial district, and the first Australian firm to be granted a licence in Shanghai. The office will initially be staffed by five lawyers. Linklaters & Alliance is hot on their heels. Its Pudong office will officially open on October 9. Linklaters' new office will have 3 lawyers and 4 other fee earners with PRC lawyer Ming Zu its senior representative in Pudong along with partner Zili Shao, who was recruited from Allens Arthur Robinson in July, to head Linklaters' China practice.

International firm Clifford Chance has opened a new office in Brazil. The Sao Paulo branch will focus on providing international legal advice for a range of existing clients, but will not practise Brazilian law. The firm has worked in the Brazilian market since the early 1990s, advising Brazilian corporates, as well as international underwriters , on global offerings. The practice has now expanded to assisting government and state-owned utilities on Brazil's extensive privatization programme, particularly for the water and telecommunications industries.

Allen & Overy is gaining an office in Bangkok as a result of its merger with local firm MPS & Associates. The firm already has regional offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore & Tokyo. MPS & Associates is a 18 lawyer corporate firm, working with international as well as domestic clients. It is well regarded for its banking and capital markets work. The three existing partners of MPS & Associates – Pises Sethsathira, Simon Makinson and Surapon Satimanont – will become partners in Allen & Overy on November 1.

• US law firm White & Case has announced the appointement of five new partners. Michael Bühler, who specializes in international commercial arbitration and international business transactions, has been named partner at the firm's Paris office. International tax partner Barrye Wall has joined the Los Angeles office. Mark Powell, a specialist in European competition and trade law, has been named a partner at the Brussels office. Partner James McGuire has been hired by the New York office as a specialist in white collar crime, complex civil litigation and corporate internal investigations. John Sarchio has joined the New York office as partner. He is head of the firm's Insurance Industry Practice Group. • Paul Gonson, attorney for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has announced that he will retire at the end of the year. Mr Gonson became SECs counsel in 1979 and has argued more than 100 appellate cases on behalf of the Commission, including cases before the Supreme Court and all US Courts of Appeal. He will continue to act as part-time consultant to the Commission following his retirement.

Although the system being used by the Hong Kong Law Society for approving foreign lawyers was not what was contemplated by the legislation, the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal has accepted its validity. The Legal Practitioners Ordinance clearly contemplates that the Law Society should assess whether an applicant to be admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong has the necessary qualifications (largely practical experience) before issuing a certificate stating which further examinations the applicant must pass before being admitted. However, the Law Society had begun a system, which it deemed to be more flexible because the exams were only carried out once a year, whereby it issued a certificate relating to exams before assessing whether the applicant had the requisite practical experience. The Court held that though this was contrary to the intention of the Ordinance, the Law Society's "flexible" procedures were acceptable.

Peter Langley, CEO at IP consulting firm Origin and consultant to Sidley & Austin, argues that in the future the owners of patents to financial products will control financial services