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The Singapore Law Society has issued a new code of conduct for lawyers in an attempt to provide greater transparency. The code, which came into force on June 1, formalizes the Society's existing Practice Directions, a series of guidelines for lawyers covering ethics, client-lawyer and lawyer-lawyer relationships, and conduct of business. Lawyers must now ensure clients are aware how much they will be charged, and on what basis, before work is started. They must also keep clients 'reasonably informed', making sure they see all relevant documents, and are now expected to respond promptly to telephone calls from clients and keep appointments unless they have good reasons. Lawyers found guilty of misconduct can be fined up to $5000, reprimanded, suspended or even struck off.

• Nine partners have left London's Frere Cholmeley Bischoff following last month's merger with UK firm Eversheds. They include three Paris-based partners who will move to other firms in the city: Ann Creelman Abboud is to join US firm Watson Farley & Williams's Paris office as partner in charge of its corporate practice and will take two avocats with her; commercial and litigation specialist Jean-Philippe Berthet will move to US firm Proskauer Rose Goetz & Mendelsohn and Richard Mees, a corporate and litigation specialist, will move to French firm Salans Hertzfeld & Heilbronn. Other moves include telecoms partner Neil Blundell going to UK firm Bird & Bird and Kirstene Baillie, a financial services specialist, moving to UK firm Field Fisher Waterhouse. Eleven other partners and 44 assistants have also left to set up a new firm, to be called Forsters (see Insides). • David Shaw, a senior corporate partner with UK firm Norton Rose, is to retire from the firm to join HSBC Holdings as adviser to the board. Shaw will chair the Investment Banking Audit Committee within the HSBC Group Executive Committee, advising on strategies and structural issues. He will take up his appointment on June 1.

Bruno Cova, general counsel at Agip, the Exploration & Production Division of Eni, talks to Barbara Galli

New Swiss legislation has opened the way for more sharing of administrative assistance information, building from the success of cooperation in the criminal field. By Claude Rouiller of Ziegler & Poncet, Geneva, former Chief Justice of Switzerland

A New York Court of Appeals case in May suggested that the US may introduce a system like the UK Mareva injunction to protect assets in insolvency. By Ronald L Cohen of Seward & Kissel, New York

When a railroad tank car explosion forced 1,000 residents of the New Orleans neighbourhood of Gentilly to evacuate their homes for 36 hours in 1987, the incident attracted little attention outside Louisiana. After all, there were no deaths and the residents did not suffer any serious damage or injuries. But 10 years later, after a New Orleans jury awarded US$3.4 billion in punitive damages against five companies found to be at fault, the case, In re New Orleans Train Car Leakage Fire Litigation, No. 97-CC-2547, suddenly captured the eye of the legal community and national media, earning itself the nickname 'The Great New Orleans Train Robbery'.

Decree 3119 of 1997 regulated, for taxation purposes, the amounts allowed as deductions from net income when associated with articles imported massively as contraband.

Without recourse to international arbitration under the BOT Decision, foreign investors have stopped financing Turkish infrastructure projects. International treaties may offer a solution. By H Elizabeth Kroeger and Timothy Kautz of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, Frankfurt

The Companies (Amendment) (Segregated Portfolio Companies) Law 1998 was recently passed and incorporated as a schedule to the Companies Law. The new legislation will affect only those companies which undertake captive insurance business in the Cayman Islands and hold an Unrestricted Class B Insurers Licence issued under the Insurance Law.

Confidentiality issues can affect not only how you issue project bonds but whether a deal is even possible. Richard Forster reports on the disclosure issues facing sponsors and bankers