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Because of the economic shakedown taking place in Thailand, 58 finance companies have been forced to shut down for an undisclosed period of time. Other finance companies and banks have been left in dire financial straits. The Thai government as a consequence has passed two Royal Proclamations to help tackle the financial crisis:

Brown & Wood is set to develop its Latin American capital markets practice by opening an office in São Paulo. New York partner Michael Fitzgerald, co-head of corporate securities and who supervises the Latin America practice, says: "We have a lawyer there who is affiliated with the firm and we are in the process of negotiating a lease. I think we will have some kind of representative office with an associate in São Paulo within the next six months." The move follows announcements from New York rival White & Case and the UK's Linklaters & Paines, that they too are opening São Paulo offices (see International Financial Law Review, October 1997, page 5).

• UK firm Simmons & Simmons has poached Angus Phang from US firm Baker & McKenzie's Hong Kong office. Phang will head the firm's Asia Pacific IP practice as partner Christopher Head moves from Hong Kong to create a New York IP department.The firm has also hired immigration specialist Garth Coates from rival City firm Lovell White Durrant. Coates, former head of immigration at Lovell's will join Hilary Belchak's immigration group at Simmons. "His experience and expertise will be invaluable in enabling us to fulfill the increasingly complex needs of our clients, both in the UK and overseas across all industry sectors," Belchak said.

US firm Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton is to open an Italian office in early 1998. Based in Rome, the office will have about eight lawyers, both US and Italian qualified recruited from its other European offices. Cleary Gottlieb will be only the third US firm to open in Italy. However, the decision reflects the growing interest of many US and UK firms in Italy. Ned Stiles, partner ofa firm in Washington, sees the move as a natural progression: "We have a significant amount of business in Italy already, and our assessment was that it was right [to open an office]."

German firm Bruckhaus Westrick Stegemann is to merge with Austria's Heller, Löber, Bahn & Partners. This, the first cross-border merger between a German and an Austrian firm, takes effect from January 1 1998. "We at Bruckhaus do not want to end up as a German niche firm, we want to be an international firm. We are starting from our home market, the continent," explains Burkhard Bastuck, a partner in Bruckhaus's Frankfurt office. His Dusseldorf-based partner Günter Beckmann agrees: "Focusing our strengths in central Europe will also provide us with a foundation for expanded business in western Europe and in regions with Anglo-American legal traditions."

As a follow-up to October’s equities survey, International Financial Law Review asked leading managers and issuers what they look for from their lawyers. A merger is one answer. Nick Ferguson reports

Against the backdrop of greater political stability and improving economic prospects, Pakistan has recently made it easier to float companies. By Mansoor H Khan of Khan & Associates, Lahore

On December 26 1996, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of Paraguay upheld the constitutionality of Law No. 814/96, the so-called Pangrazio Law, which proposed to indemnify all account holders incurring losses with the commercial banks that collapsed following the May 1995 banking crisis in Paraguay. The scope of the indemnification authorized by the law included the holders of unregistered accounts — that is, accounts represented by bearer deposit receipts, as opposed to accounts registered in the names of the holders.

Commission view on changeover to the euro; Commission acts on harmful tax competition; Consultation on the freedom to provide insurance services

The House of Lords decided on October 30 in the landmark case of Morris v Agrichemicals (also called BCCI No. 8), that it is legally possible for a bank to take an equitable charge over money deposited with it. This ruling ends more than a decade of controversy caused by the decision in Re Charge Card Services Limited [1986] when Millett J stated that a charge-back was "conceptually impossible".