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As a participating member state in the first group of countries to adopt the single currency in 1999, Portugal must ensure a smooth and effective transition to the euro in respect of the securities market.

Geoffrey Yeowart of Lovell White Durrant, London, updates the answers given in our December 1997 issue to the most frequently asked legal questions

Leading securitization specialist Robert Palache is to leave UK firm Clifford Chance to join investment bank Nomura International. Palache, the managing partner of Clifford Chance's finance practice, will give up legal practice completely in his new role as a Director and Joint Head of Securitization of Nomura's Principal Finance Group.

The Pünder group, a cooperation of European law firms, will be dissolved on December 31 1998. The remaining firms in the group had hoped to merge but they could not agree on the pace of integration. The group was hit earlier this year by the loss of Switzerland's Stoffel & Partner and Coppens Van Ommeslaghe & Faurès of Belgium, which also cited disagreements over integration between the firms. The remaining group comprises German firm Pünder Volhard Weber & Axster, Austrian firm Cerha Hempel & Spiegelfeld and French firm De Pardieu Brocas Maffei & Associés. At the end of the year these firms will continue to work together on a case-by-case basis but will no longer have a formal alliance. Peter Nägele, partner at Pünder Volhard, says: "All the firms agreed that alliances are no longer useful but our firm wanted to move ahead more quickly. We decided that it is better to dissolve the group and be free to pursue other options."

Spanish law firm Cuatrecasas has acquired Alicante law firm Dura and plans further mergers with firms in Glaizia, Majorca and Portugal. It is expanding its activities in an attempt to become the prominent law firm in the Iberian peninsula. Dura is a small firm specializing in commercial law and tax law and has special links with the European trade mark office in Alicante. Enric Picañol, head of international operations at Cuatrecasas in Barcelona, says: "We have clients in the major cities and now we want to go to the smaller places. We want to provide our clients with local advice but give them a full range of services."Cuatrecasas already has offices in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia.

German firm Gleiss Lutz Hootz Hirsch & Partner and Benelux firm Stibbe Simont Monahan Duhot are considering merging. Partners at the two firms will take a vote in December and, if approved, the German firm will continue business as Stibbe Gleiss Simont Duhot on January 1 1999. The move follows the merger last year of Stibbe and French firm Giroux Buhagiar & Associés in Paris. Frans Corpeleyn, managing partner of Stibbe, says: "We will have French, Belgian, Dutch and German lawyers and these are the major jurisdictions in Europe. We want to be one truly integrated European law firm."

Following pressure from the opposition party, the Japanese Prime Minister has decided to withdraw legislation to rehabilitate the financial sector. The government was planning to use taxpayers' money to help bail out Japan's ailing banks but Minshuto, the Democratic Party of Japan, has proposed a rescue plan which will address the problems by allowing market forces to prevail. Naoto Kan, the leader of Minshuto, proposes that the Long-Term Credit Bank (LTCB) be nationalized and no longer entitled to receive public money from a fund which was set up in February following the enactment of a new law to provide financial assistance to banks. Kan also proposes that an independent body be created to deal with failed financial institutions. The creation of this body, under Article three of the National Government Law, will result in a separation of budgetary and financial administration in the Ministry of Finance. However, this move is criticized by lawyers for its lack of long-term vision. Andrew Castle, banking partner at Allen & Overy in Tokyo, says: "These proposals do not provide an answer to the problems. Nationalizing the bank does not really mean anything in itself. The question they must address is whether they will find resources to keep LTCB in business or wind it up."

Delegates at the IBA's Vancouver conference heard how the introduction of the euro will lead to a vast unified European capital market, with the ability to rival the US and Japan. But, says Charles Proctor, a capital markets partner at UK firm Norton Rose, the creation of a European Securities Commission is necessary if the euro market is to become internationally credible. Proctor, speaking at the session Securities - related problems of the Euro, explained how the European Central Bank will have no specific powers over the securities markets. A European Securities Commission would unify the rules applicable to the public debt/equity markets across all member states, not solely the euro-zone. This would enhance the credibility of the euro and of the European financial markets and encourage free movement of capital across the EU.

The International Bar Association's Council has passed a resolution on multidisciplinary practices (MDPs), its first acknowledgment that the joining of legal and accountancy practices is inevitable. The resolution calls on national regulators, including authorities which promote trade in services, to establish rules on MDPs to protect both practitioners and clients. Such rules should include measures to protect lawyers' independence and to prevent MDPs from representing conflicting interests. Client privilege and confidentiality should also be safeguarded.

A recent Court of Appeal decision (Russell McVeagh McKenzie Bartleet v Tower Corporation) provides a useful indication to New Zealand law firms of the judiciary's approach to Chinese walls in large firms.