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UK firm Freshfields and German firm Deringer Tessin Herrmann & Sedemund have formed an alliance which is expected to lead to a cross-border merger in around two year's time. The alliance was announced on January 26 1998 and the full merger is proposed for late 1999. The first phase of the alliance will begin in May, with the merger of the firms' operations in Germany. Freshfields' only office in Germany is Frankfurt. The Brussels and Moscow offices of each firm will also combine and operate as joint offices. These were the two cities outside Germany where Deringer had offices, in addition to its four German offices.

• New York-based Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft has added a further six solicitors to its London office. James Roome, formerly a corporate insolvency partner at Simmons & Simmons, becomes a partner; the other five are at the associate level. They are Yvette Croucher (formerly of Simmons & Simmons), Linda Davies (from Norton Rose), Richard East (from Baker & McKenzie), Seamus Gray (insolvency; from Bannister's) and Sarah Squires (capital markets and tax; from Linklaters & Paines). The total number of solicitors signed up to the firm is now 16.

The new Star trusts offer useful new opportunities for structuring financial transactions through the Cayman Islands. They will be particularly useful in complex loans or securitization deals. By Chris Narborough of Truman Bodden & Co, Cayman Islands

So far, branches have been the most popular way for banks and finance companies to enter the Chinese market. But joint ventures offer an attractive alternative. By Philip Gilligan and Steven Blayney of White & Case, Hong Kong

The Court of Appeal (Murray v Yorkshire Fund Managers Limited) recently considered the question of to whom rights of confidence in business information belong.

The Fed has proposed changes to Regulation K which liberalize the rules governing expansion in the US for international banks. By Connie Friesen and David Nissenbaum of Richards & O’Neil LLP, New York

The government has accepted most of the proposals for reform of the financial sector put up by the government-appointed private sector committee on financial sector competitiveness made public its report offering detailed proposals to promote Singapore as Asia's premier financial centre.

In the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, the government can claim two major achievements in reforms to reduce public deficit:

Republic Act No. 8183, approved on June 11 1996, repealed Republic Act No. 529. The old act was entitled the Act to Assure the Uniform Value of Philippines Coin and Currency, or more simply, the Uniform Currency Law. The Uniform currency law, in effect since June 16 1950, declared as "against public policy, and null, void, and of no effect" any provision pertaining to any domestic obligation which "purports to give to the obligee the right to require payment in gold or in a particular kind of coin or currency other than Philippine currency or in an amount of money of the Philippines measured thereby".

The US's principal federal anti-discrimination law – Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – has a long extraterritorial reach. Not only does it apply to employees of US and foreign employers working within the US, but it also covers US employees working abroad if the company for whom they work is controlled by a US entity. However, Title VII does not apply to foreign nationals working outside the US.