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Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy has reacted strongly to the loss of the leading names in its English law practice to rival firm Shearman & Sterling. "We are out in the lateral hire market for partners, to help our English law capability," says managing partner and chairman Mel Immergut. Reiterating the firm's commitment to an English law practice, he says he is hopeful it will not take long to rebuild the practice: "The timing has been somewhat set back, but we are optimistic it is not by very much."

For the first time, Austria's bar association rules are being called into question and competition is likely to arrive soon. Austrian firms are preparing for mergers to face that competition. By Samantha Wigham

• Clifford Chance's London office has lost its head of corporate finance, Peter Brooks. Brooks has left to become general counsel for one of his clients, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell. He has worked at Clifford Chance for 28 years.

The contract for Laibin B, China's first 100% wholly foreign-owned build-operate-transfer (BOT) power plant, was formally agreed in Beijing on November 11 1996. Under the HK$4.57 billion (US$600 million) contract, GEC Alsthom, an Anglo-French engineering group, and Electricite de France (EDF) will jointly control the company undertaking the contract. EDF will hold a 60% stake and GEC, 40%. The project is scheduled to be completed sometime after 1999, whereupon EDF and GEC will operate the power plant to recoup their investment before the power plant reverts to the Guanxi government at the end of the term.

In the largest privatization in European history, 600 million shares in Deutsche Telekom have been sold for a total of Dm20 billion (US$13 billion). At a share price of Dm28.50, in the middle of the Dm25 to Dm30 guide, the issue was five times oversubscribed.

Recent developments in the legal field in Turkey include the following:

Limiting professional liability; Lending to local authorities; Disqualification of directors; Enforcing an assigned debtBy Neil Mirchandani, City Litigation Group, Lovell White Durrant, London

Alongside implementing the ISD and CAD, Finland has made a number of other changes to its securities law. By Tomas Lindholm and Tarja Wist of Roschier-Holmberg & Waselius, Helsinki

US firm Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly will merge with Californian intellectual property (IP) firm Poms, Smith, Lande & Rose on January 1 1997. The new firm will have one of the largest IP practices in the US and hopes to rank in the top 10 firms for trade marks issued. The firm will have 11 offices.

A draft Legislative Decree implementing EU Directive 19/94 was submitted in September to Parliament by the Council of Ministers.