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The new presence of foreign law firms aggressively staking out territory in Germany is putting pressure on local firms. A second wave of mergers seems to be beginning. Samantha Wigham reports

Elizabeth Wall, group director of legal services at Cable & Wireless, London, talks to Diana Bentley

On November 11 1996, South Africa's new Labour Relations Act took effect. The Act, to a large extent, replaced the prior South African labour law framework. The primary focus of the Act is the regulation of relations between trade unions and employers. However, to a lesser extent, the Act also regulates important aspects of the relationship between employers and individual employees. The Act encompasses all sectors of the labour force, in contrast to the predecessor legislation which did not cover employees in the agricultural, domestic services or public sectors.

Geoffrey Yeowart of Lovell White Durrant, London, answers some of the most frequently asked legal questions relating to the forthcoming introduction of the euro

Two recent decisions by US federal courts appear to have nullified an important legal weapon in the fight against insider trading. By Jonathan Blackman of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, New York

British Telecom has launched a US$21 billion bid for the 80% of US telecommunications company MCI Communications which it does not already own. This is the largest ever foreign takeover of a US company. The combined company will be called Concert.

US firm Rogers & Wells has lost the head and 12 other members of its Latin American group, which specializes in cross-border work and project finance. The head of the group, Roberto Dañino, together with two other partners, Paul Dwyer and Jorge Alers, have left the firm for rival Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington DC. Dañino is a Peruvian lawyer and former general counsel of the Inter-American Investment Corporation. "We think that the market ahead of us is going to be dependent on DC-based mutilateral organizations such as OPIC and Eximbank and we had to be based in the headquarters of a top firm in the city," says Dañino.

Belgian firm Liedekerke Wolters Waelbroeck & Kirkpatrick, France's Siméon & Associés and Wessing Berenberg-Gossler Zimmerman Lange of Germany have entered into a cooperation agreement. The firms will establish a European Economic Interest Grouping, called the Conference of European Lawyers. This will form the basis of future cooperation in all fields of law.

Clifford Chance partner Tim Soutar is returning to London from Hong Kong to bolster the firm's Asian capability in London. He will also assist with the coordination of the firm's global projects group, headed by Rodney Short.

Toronto-based Goodman Phillips & Vineberg has launched its third office in Asia, opening in Singapore in December. Goodman Phillips has had an office in Hong Kong for some 25 years and is the only Canadian firm with an office in Beijing.