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The lighter side of the past month in the world of financial law

Both foreign and domestic investors who wish to engage in highly-regulated business in Vietnam must satisfy certain statutory conditions in order to be licensed

Joel Moss, Shearman & Sterling Summer may be around the corner but lateral hires throughout the Americas have not slowed down. One of the most heralded developments came on the west coast as SIDLEY AUSTIN hired Dan Clivner, former head of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett's Los Angeles branch, as co-managing partner of the firm's LA office. Clivner specialises in telecom, media, and retail sector deals, often with a private equity component. On the east coast, GIBSON DUNN & CRUTCHER announced the hiring of partner Victoria Shusterman from Katten Muchin Rosenman. Shusterman has a commercial real-estate finance practice with a focus on banks, investors, Reits, and insurance companies. In another loss for Katten's New York office, GREENBERG TRAURIG brought aboard Anthony Perricone as a shareholder. Perricone specialises in fund formation for a broad client base encompassing investment managers, private fund sponsors and institutional investors.

With our economy finally showing clear and consistent signs of recovery, the Spanish legislator has responded to an old demand from entrepreneurs and representatives of some of the most relevant SMEs in the country

Victor Chen, Paul Hastings Grant Koch, DLA Piper In Hong Kong, Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson – which has decided to pull out of Asia – lost corporate specialists Douglas Freeman and Victor Chen to PAUL HASTINGS, and disputes partner Alfred Wu to NORTON ROSE FULBRIGHT. Elsewhere, Thomas Kollar joined the corporate and securities practice at MAYER BROWN JSM from Clifford Chance. On the mainland, SIDLEY AUSTIN brought in a new partner in New York to boost its Chinese M&A practice. Wenseng Pan joined the firm from O'Melveny & Myers where she was of counsel advising on cross-border transactions between US and China in the life science and technology sectors.

A frican governments, long the targets of institutional investors, development funds and corporates hungry for a piece of their growth story, are fighting back. From Kenya to Nigeria, Ghana to Mozambique, state departments are reversing the procurement process. Foreign counsel should take note.

As Europe's financial regulatory onslaught approaches its end, attention is turning to market inefficiencies that have fallen by the wayside. These are the issues that receive very little press. Often because they are not contentious, and contrary to the post-crisis anti-regulator mindset, market overseers are not to blame.

André Figueiredo, PLMJ Jesús Mardomingo, Dentons The clear trend in late April and early May among US firms in the UK and Brussels lateral hire markets was a desire to add competition capacity. MAYER BROWN was one of the first to move, hiring Berwin Leighton Paisner's EU competition head David Harrison to co-head its own team in the area. He had been with BLP for 10 years. Mayer Brown also suffered a loss as GREENBERG TRAURIG MAHER announced its hire of the firm's London head of antitrust and competition Gillian Sproul, who had been with the firm since moving from Dentons in 2005. JONES DAY looked to boost its Brussels team with the addition of Philipp Werner from US rival McDermott Will & Emery. A state aid specialist, Werner acts on EU and German competition law matters.

China's interpretation of some international conventions as well as its broad state secrecy laws and regulations have constructed a type of firewall around its financial institutions. This has, essentially, rendered them nearly immune from the jurisdiction of other countries' courts and regulatory agencies. That may have short-term benefits – namely avoiding litigation in the US – but could ultimately harm their integration into the global financial system.

Last month's ruling in the Federal House Finance Authority's (FHFA) case against Nomura and RBS may mark the beginning of closure for the residential-mortgage backed securities (RMBS) market, after the beating it has taken following the financial crisis. The blows to RMBS were both physical to its value, and emotional to its reputation.