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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.

Freshfields, in a further move to build its US offices, has poached four partners from New York firm Milbank Tweed Hadley and McCloy. Ted Burke (project finance), Jonathan Rod (project bond finance) and Brian Rance (structured finance and derivatives) will join as partners in the New York office. Gregory May (tax) will join the Washington, DC office. Freshfields is concentrating on building up its project finance practice. Ian Terry, managing partner, says: "We will now have project finance specialists in all of the major jurisdictions. Expansion in the US will enable us to consolidate our practice with our US client base."

Facing addressive competition on three fronts, French firms need to abandon their approach to stay in the front rank. Barbara Galli reports from Paris

In connection with the financial and political crises that swept Russia in August and September, the Russian government has adopted certain extraordinary measures, including the restructuring of the state's obligations under widely-held debt securities, and a moratorium on repayment of certain other hard currency debts. Creditor losses as a result of these measures are potentially enormous; by some estimates, in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Among other effects, the new measures have precipitated the effective collapse of the Russian banking system. From a legal perspective, the imposition of the measures has raised a host of issues, including the effective remedies available to bond creditors and the status of private debtor obligations in view of the moratorium.

The National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) announced on September 8 1998 that the auction of the so-called mirror companies is set for December 2 1998 on the Rio de Janeiro Stock Exchange. The mirror companies will be able to exploit fixed telephony in three regions: region one (Tele Norte Leste mirror), region two (Tele Centro Sul mirror) and region three (Telesp mirror), as well as in competition with Embratel (domestic and international long-distance services, telegraphy, maritime communications and data transmission). Accordingly, there will be four mirror companies, all starting from non-existing structures, which will require considerable investment in infrastructure.

ING Group has purchased a leading stake in German bank BHF-Bank. The deal, which is worth DM 2.5 billion ($1.4 billion), involved a number of separate transactions through which ING increased its holding of BHF-Bank shares from 4.5% to 39%. ING is now the largest single shareholder of BHF-Bank. The transaction was completed on September 14. Final completion of the acquisition is dependent on gaining the consent of the regulatory authorities. The shares were sold by Allianz, DG Bank and Münchener Rück.

• Clifford Chance has recruited three new partners. Jason Glover will be based in London, while Pablo Bieger and José Antonio Cainzos join the Madrid office. Glover is a private equity specialist and he was formerly with Asian Infrastructure Fund Advisers. Bieger, a corporate finance specialist, joins from Garrigues & Andersen. He had left Clifford Chance for Arthur Andersen in 1996. Cainzos was head of the litigation department of Baker & McKenzie and he will hold the same position at Clifford Chance.