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UK firm Lovell White Durrant is to open for business in Russia. In charge of setting up a Moscow office is partner Christopher Smith, head of Lovell's Central and Eastern European practice and of the Prague office. Smith previously set up the firm's Beijing office and will be dividing his time between Moscow and Prague. Resident head of the office will be Daniel Gogek, an associate who moves from Freshfields' Moscow office. He was previously at White & Case and Coudert Brothers. Freshfields partner Christian Salbang worked closely with him and says: "The last we knew was that he had decided to leave the law and go back to Canada to work in business, so it is rather a surprise. But he is a competent fellow with a lot of experience and I hope he finds at Lovell what he wasn't able to find at Freshfields."

US firm Chadbourne & Parke has installed recently-acquired project finance partner Ian Johnson as head of a new office in Singapore. Joining him there is senior associate Bruce Rader, who moves to Singapore from New York. The office opened on April 14, and will focus on project finance, capital markets and cross-border transactions. It aims to strengthen the firm's Asian presence and complement the Hong Kong office.

Allen & Overy's Warsaw office will be joined by two partners and seven Polish associates from May 1 after UK firm Nabarro Nathanson agreed to close its office and transfer the staff and clients to Allen & Overy. English resident partner Michael Davies, who set up the Nabarro Nathanson office in 1991, joins Allen & Overy as a partner in Warsaw with Polish lawyer Tomasz Dobrowolski. Nabarro's senior partner David Bramson says the move followed a review of strategy. "We have terrific people there but we wanted them to find a safe haven because to make the Warsaw office fly we would have had to put in at least £1 million," he comments.

Coudert Brothers has added four project finance partners from the Washington office of McDermott, Will & Emery. Partners Charles Friedlander, George Knapp, Roger Stark and Roger Wagner have practised together since 1985. They joined Coudert's 75-lawyer International Finance Practice Group on March 19 1997. Knapp highlights the international reach of Coudert as the reason for the decision to leave McDermott. "Coudert is one of the only US firms, perhaps the only US firm, with a truly global presence. Coudert covers every region where our clients plan to be."

The new Argentine financial instrument available from the middle of this month offers smaller companies a way to cut the credit risk burden. By Rodolfo Gerardo Papa of Cardenas, Cassagne & Asociados, Buenos Aires

The Danish rules on netting are found in Sections 57 and 58 of the Securities Trading Act (STA) of December 20 1995 which entered into force on May 1 1996.

The Colombian government, recognizing the importance of an efficient telecommunications infrastructure, has taken steps in the last few years to liberalize Colombia's regulatory framework. These changes have created significant investment opportunities in a number of areas, including local telephone services.

Privatization: amendments to corporate and capital markets law. On April 10 1997, Congress approved a Bill introducing amendments to Law 6404/76 (Law on Corporations) and 6385/76 (Law on Capital Markets). Rights of minority shareholders have been altered to allow more flexibility in cases of mergers or split-ups. The aim of the Bill is to assist the privatization process.

SBC Communications of the US and Telekom Malaysia have formed a consortium to buy a 30% stake in state-owned Telkom South Africa. The deal will cost the consortium US$1.26 billion, and will be the biggest direct foreign investment in South Africa.

Tony Williams, who has been Clifford Chance's Moscow head for the last two years, will shortly relocate to London to begin the transition to managing partner. Williams beat off the challenge of London partner Peter Charlton in the second ballot of the whole partnership and has been given an extended mandate of five years compared to the three year terms served by Geoffrey Howe. "It was decided to change it to five years as it was felt that five years for an initial term was more appropriate for what is now a quite complex job," comments Williams.