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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.

The dissolution of the international partnership between Canadian firms Ogilvy Renault and Osler Hoskin & Harcourt was coolly calculated many months in advance by Ogilvy. This much is revealed by an Ogilvy Renault internal memo dating from 1995 obtained by International Financial Law Review which discusses the future of a potential independent Ogilvy Renault office in London. The official reason given by both firms for the split in London in February 1996 was that Ogilvy Renault had announced it was to open an office in Toronto in the summer of 1996. However, the memo states that in mid-1995 Ogilvy Renault was "considering various alternatives" to its arrangements with Osler Hoskin. The memo was addressed by then managing partner of the London office, Michael Fortier (now based in Montreal), to managing partner Raymond Crevier.

• UK firm Linklaters & Paines has added two partners. On December 1, US-qualified Cecil Quillen was promoted from senior associate to partner in the firm's US securities team in New York. The firm has also attracted the services of Fiona Rice, a local partner in the Singapore office of rival Allen & Overy.

Under present Swedish legislation a company is prohibited from signing for, acquiring or taking as security shares issued by the company itself or by a parent company. This rule, originally justified by the need to protect the creditors of a company, was introduced in 1895 and has been restated in subsequent legislation for a variety of reasons.

At present the Swiss criminal code (SCC) does not contain an express provision making the manipulation of stock prices a criminal offence. However, this will change with a new provision, Article 161bis SCC, scheduled to come into force in the course of 1997. This sets out the kinds of manipulation of stock prices punishable by law and reads as follows:

Proposed legislative changes in Finland will further facilitate the use of mezzanine finance instruments, whose relatively high yields make for an attractive investment option. By Kari Lautjärvi and Jukka Muhonen of Heikki Haapaniemi, Attorneys-at-Law, Helsinki

IFLRev identifies and discusses the most interesting deals of 1996. By Paul Lee, Richard Forster, Alexandra Lennane and Samantha Wigham

New Zealand is about to undergo its most significant securities law reform in over a decade. Lloyd Kavanagh and Gregg Dell of Russell McVeagh McKenzie Bartleet & Co, Wellington, discuss the changes