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Austria has always had closer ties with eastern Europe than many of its fellow EU members. But these links are forcing Austria’s law firms to make a difficult choice between east and west. Michael Evans reports

Last year’s legal reforms promised great things for the German market. Thomas Williams reports from Frankfurt where lawyers are now desperate for a long-expected recovery

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer worked opposite Clifford Chance on the £950 million ($1.4 billion) initial public offering of bookmaker William Hill which is likely to be one of the biggest UK offerings of the year. Freshfields won the mandate to act for William Hill after advising the issuer's previous owners, Nomura, on its attempt to float the company in 1999.

Recent SEC actions show it is not just the energy industry that is coming under the Commission’s fire for manipulating earnings reports. Neil Golden of Chadbourne & Parke, Washington DC, explains why technical compliance with GAAP may no longer be enough

The US SEC has proposed rules to improve accountability of auditors of public companies through a Public Accountability Board. The Board would be outside the control of accounting professionals and is expected to supplement the watchdog's oversight and enforcement aims by employing 50 full-time staff. The Commission stated that the measures would "expand the opportunities to detect and remedy ethical lapses or deficiencies in competence".

As EU member states discussed the Prospectus Directive for the first time recently, deep divisions remained. Ecofin, the EU council of finance ministers, had preliminary discussions and set out a general strategy for reaching an agreement, but conceded that the permanent representations would have to compromise before an agreement could be thrashed out.

A key characteristic of supplementary capital contributions (prestações suplementares), which Portuguese law (articles 201º to 213º of the Company Code) forsees being used exclusively for Lda companies, but which subject to certain requirements may also be materially adopted in SA companies, is to enable shareholders to make supplementary capital contributions. This is provided the terms under which such contributions are made are stipulated in the company's by-laws and that supplementary equity capital is non-interest bearing. To demand from the shareholders all or part of the amount (necessarily foreseen in the by-laws) of the supplementary capital contributions, a resolution from the General Meeting is always required.

Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance and Linklaters have become the first foreign firms to win approval to open second offices in China. Although all three firms had already acquired second offices through European mergers, none of them had licences in their own names. In line with China's World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments, the Ministry of Justice had promised to relax its geographic restrictions on law firm offices. Before signing up to the WTO, China issued licences to foreign firms on a quota basis, good for five years in most cases. Even with a licence, firms could open only one office, forcing most into a decision between Shanghai and Beijing. Others, including Deacons and Stephenson Harwood & Lo, opened in Guangzhou, just across the border from Hong Kong, in Guangdong province.

Robin Griffith and Michail Papadakis of Clifford Chance consider Europe's recent compromise on German state aid and its effect on the credit risk of special institutions

A Delaware court has rejected claims of vote buying in the shareholder vote for Hewlett-Packard’s merger with Compaq. Meredith Brown and Gary Kubek of Debevoise & Plimpton, New York, examine the decision