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Article 22 of Legislative Decree No. 58 (through which a unified text of rules on the financial markets has been approved) sets out basic principles on the segregation of patrimonies of financial intermediaries and clients.

A new Russian bankruptcy law became effective on March 1 1998 (Federal Law No. 6-FZ On Bankruptcy). Given the difficulties being experienced by the Russian economy and the precarious state of many enterprises, the new law may assume growing importance in the reform process. Under previous legislation, bankruptcies proved difficult to implement and only infrequently resulted in the liquidation or material restructuring of troubled debtors. Key improvements in the new law include a revised and more practical definition of bankruptcy; a wider list of actors who may start bankruptcy proceedings; and new and more detailed procedures governing the activities of the courts, creditors and manager/trustees in connection with bankruptcy.

New regulations on netting agreements governing financial transactions related to derivative instruments have been passed as an additional provision to a law customarily enacted at the same time as the approval of the budget for the following year. That law, which came into force on January 1 1998, added a new section to a 1994 law on the Second Banking Directive.

A possible amendment to the Act on Building Societies (Ustawa o kasach oszczednosciowo-budowlanych) seriously threatens the development of the newly established Polish building societies.

The proposed Council Directive on savings income was circulated by the European Commission on June 4 1998. Its rationale is the perceived scope for tax avoidance created by a lack of coordination of national systems for the taxation of interest payments on savings. It will also tax interest on public debt securities and bonds.

Orange, the UK mobile phone operator, has raised nearly US$1 billion with a high yield debt issue, the largest-ever by a European company. The US$996 million high yield debt was issued in Euros, American dollars and sterling. Advising Orange is London firm Linklaters & Paines. The partners assisting are Brigid Rentoul (corporate) and Tom Wells (international finance).

The key to Latvia’s future lies in Brussels. Membership of the EU would speed the country towards greater political and economic stability. Exclusion from the latest round of EU enlargement discussions was a major setback. Latvia failed to make sufficient progress with economic and other reforms for entry, but there are many good indicators. Inflation is the lowest in former communist states. Growth is expected to exceed 5% again in 1998 and the budget is in surplus. The national currency, the lat, is kept stable by an independent central bank.

Despite resistance from rivals and internal opposition, Lagerlöf & Leman has chosen European integration over independence. Nick Ferguson reports from Stockholm on a market divided by Lagerlöf’s vision for European legal services

A group of 15 lawyers who left Swedish law firm Lagerlöf & Leman because of its association with UK firm Linklaters & Paines are now the country's highest billing lawyers. Partners at Hammarskiöld & Co in Stockholm brought in on average Skr 9.6 million (US$1.17 million) per partner, almost twice that of the partners at their previous firm, according to figures published in the Swedish business newspaper Affärs Världen. In July, Lagerlöf & Leman, along with three other members of the Alliance, entered into an association with Linklaters. The new grouping, Linklaters & Alliance, includes Oppenhoff & Rädler in Germany, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek in the Netherlands and De Bandt van Hecke & Lagae in Belgium.

US telecommunications company AT&T and British Telecommunications (BT) are embarking on a joint venture which is expected to make US$11 billion in annual revenue. The companies aim to increase their presence in the multinational telecoms market. Advising AT&T is Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, New York. The team of lawyers includes partners Steven Rosenblum (corporate), Richard Katcher (corporate), Stephanie Seligman (corporate), Adrienne Atkinson (corporate), Peter Canellos (tax), Jodi Schwartz (tax) and Ilene Gotts (antitrust).