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As part of an effort to encourage the development of the securities market, a key goal in the economic policy of the current administration, Congress approved an Investment Funds Act on September 17 1996. The aim of the Act is to establish the legal framework for investment funds, which thus far were not expressly contemplated within the Uruguayan legal system.

Until recently foreigners wishing to invest in Cyprus were limited to acquiring minority control in Cypriot companies, and only in exceptional cases and after an intense and time-consuming examination of their application were they allowed to have majority control.

Increased powers of Financial Supervisor

The income tax liability of a recipient of profits on the disposal of assets has long been a grey area of income tax law. Problems arise when trying to distinguish between taxable income and non-taxable capital gains. The recent decision of the Privy Council in Rangatira Limited v The Commissioner of Inland Revenue provided an opportunity to clarify the law in this area. Hence the decision had been keenly awaited by the New Zealand investment market.

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.

Tax specialists are the best paid in-house counsel, according to a survey conducted jointly by US legal consulting firm Altman Weil Pensa and the American Corporate Counsel Association. The Law Department Compensation Benchmarking Survey examines the finances of US company legal departments, and reveals that the top earning specialities are tax, and mergers and acquisitions, for which an average in-house counsel receives about US$120,000. Almost half chief legal officers earned between US$200,000 and US$350,000, while nearly 10% earned more than US$500,000. But the departments continued to rely heavily on external firms, with each, on average, using about 48 firms in 1996. This cost departments an average of US$376,162 per lawyer. The highest paid external lawyers were specialists in personal injury defence, earning US$108,151, followed by general litigation lawyers, who received US$100,938. Mergers and acquisitions specialists and intellectual property lawyers earned US$88,985 and US$85,283 respectively.

• US firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft has appointed Lawrence Fruchtman. He joins from National Westminster Bancorp, where he specializes in domestic and international banking regulation. He has also worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Bank Security and Other Credit Enhancement Methods

UK firm Freshfields has lost out to rival Linklaters & Paines in a ranking of firms advising on public takeovers in the UK. The table, published by Acquisitions Monthly, places Freshfields third in its top 20 survey. In 1995 Freshfields advised on 31 deals worth a total of £32.2 billion (US$51 billion), while in 1996, it advised on 17 deals amounting to only £9.5 billion. However, the table reveals that in 1996 both the value and number of deals decreased significantly overall. The results put Linklaters & Paines top with £19 billion-worth of deals. Slaughter and May remained in second place, with deals worth £16.3 billion, although it had advised in six more deals than Linklaters. Ashurst Morris Crisp leapt from 13th place to fourth, advising on 15 deals worth nearly US$9 billion. Other big changes in the rankings came from Macfarlanes, which jumped from 14th place to seventh and Simmons & Simmons which slipped four places.

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.