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City firm Cameron Markby Hewitt and rival McKenna & Co have ended months of speculation by announcing that they are to merge. On December 17 the firms issued a statement that a new firm, Cameron McKenna, will open on May 1 1997. The firms elected Bill Shelford, senior partner of Cameron Markby Hewitt, as senior partner of the new firm. Managing partner will be Robert Derry-Evans, now managing partner of McKenna. The firm will be the eighth largest in the UK, with nine international offices. The firm will specialize in banking, property, corporate insurance, projects and commercial law.

Bank Security and Other Credit Enhancement Methods

US firm Shearman & Sterling has changed the name of its Budapest office. Hungarian legislation requires the firm to set up a separate Hungarian firm made up of its Hungarian lawyers. The firm is called Bán, S Szabó & Partners and is headed by Chrysta Bán. He is assisted by Péter Szabó, who joins from rival Bogsch & Partners. The firm will continue to cooperate with Shearman & Sterling. John Baltay, head of Shearman & Sterling's Budapest office since 1992, becomes international counsel to the new firm.

New procedure for UCIT authorizations

On December 6 1996, the ECJ issued one of the most important rulings in recent years in the continuing battle between pharmaceutical companies and 'parallel importers', ie independent traders who are able to undercut prices in expensive markets by importing bulk quantities of medicines from low-price EU countries. The Primecrown case upholds the right of parallel importers under the Single Market rules to buy and sell wherever they choose in the EU and fails to answer the claim of patent holders that parallel imports threaten research.

A provisionary measure on money-laundering came into force in September 1996 and a comprehensive law came into force in November. Turkey entered into agreements with Kazakstan, Poland, Egypt, Malaysia, China, India, Algeria and Mongolia for the avoidance of double taxation with respect to taxes on income. The Council of Ministers approved the entry of Turkey to the Cotton Advisory Committee.

The Polish government will decide the fate of foreign lawyers in a series of votes over the next few weeks. One proposal would restrict foreign law firms' ability to hire domestic lawyers and could require all foreign offices to be operated by Polish firms. But foreign firms should not worry yet, according to Stephen Denyer, partner at Allen & Overy in Warsaw and leader of a group formed by foreign lawyers in Poland. "Although the voting is soon, the government proposed this three-and-a-half years ago," he explains. "The legal regime here will definitely change. It will probably be necessary to have fully-qualified lawyers, and the Polish system will change. But the rules might just restrict foreign firms, rather than forcing foreign lawyers not to practise here."

Singapore firm Chor Pee & Company has broken into two new practices following disagreements between partners. The firm dissolved on December 31. Name partner Lim Chor Pee has started a new practice to be called Chor Pee & Partners, and is taking 20 of the original firm's 28 lawyers with him. But the remaining lawyers claim that he cannot use the name, because it is too similar to the old firm's name.

The American chapter of litigation involving the financially distressed Lloyd's of London has been active. American Names who have opted not to participate in the settlement contained in the Lloyd's Reconstruction and Renewal Plan recently sued Lloyd's for fraudulent misrepresentation in two cases filed in the federal court in New York: Stamm v Lloyd's and Grace v Lloyd's.

The commoditization of energy and the development of a European energy market is well under way — but will remain incomplete while there is no standardized master contract available. By Mark Haedicke of Enron Capital & Trade Resources Corporation, Houston