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‘Rogue’ traders are an inevitable price paid by the markets for their cultivation of immature and selfish behaviour. By Eric C Bettelheim of Mayer, Brown & Platt, London

Freshfields has announced the appointment of a second partner in its London US securities group and is set to complete its first US registered securities deal. Don Guiney joins the US securities group from Brobeck Hale and Dorr, the London operation of Boston firm Hale and Dorr and California's Brobeck Phleger & Harrison. "What I did for Brobeck Hale was to establish their joint venture office [in 1990] with a credible securities practice operating for both underwriters and issuers," explains Guiney. "But Freshfields offered the challenge and excitement of working to build a securities practice in the global market."

International commercial arbitration in China and Hong Kong after July 1997 remains an area of law full of uncertainties. Simon G Zinger of Graham & James LLP, San Francisco, looks at the options for parties to disputes

Lloyd's litigation

The debt crisis of the 1980s may be over, but the litigation arising from the various sovereign defaults is not. The holding of a recent case, Pravin Banker Associates v Banco Popular Del Peru, 1997 WL 134390 (2nd Cir NY), may have serious repercussions for rescheduling sovereign debt.

Legislative reform of the German financial markets continues with the publication in April of the long-awaited draft of the Third Financial Markets Promotion Act. The bill is expected to come into force on January 1 1998.

On April 2 1, the European Council of Industry Ministers reached agreement on important changes to the existing EU merger control regime under Council Regulation 4064/89 (the Merger Regulation). The principal amendments relate to:

The Board of the Central Bank of Chile in its meeting of April 5 1997 resolved to open access to the Formal Exchange Market (made up of banks and authorized foreign exchange brokerage firms) for purchases of foreign exchange to make investments or pay expenses in Chile or abroad in foreign currency, to eliminate other restrictions on investment abroad and to renew the effectiveness of the rest of the foreign exchange restrictions on the entry of capital into Chile.

Microsoft, the largest computer software company, is buying WebTV Networks of Palo Alto for around US$425 million in stock and cash. WebTV, which will become a Microsoft subsidiary, has developed technology enabling consumers to surf the internet using their television sets.

Road Administration Adviser: Veikko Palotie & Co