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Australian firm Allens Arthur Robinson has opened a new office in the Lujiazui Pudong New District of Shanghai. It is the first international firm to move into Shanghai's new financial district, and the first Australian firm to be granted a licence in Shanghai. The office will initially be staffed by five lawyers. Linklaters & Alliance is hot on their heels. Its Pudong office will officially open on October 9. Linklaters' new office will have 3 lawyers and 4 other fee earners with PRC lawyer Ming Zu its senior representative in Pudong along with partner Zili Shao, who was recruited from Allens Arthur Robinson in July, to head Linklaters' China practice.

Although the system being used by the Hong Kong Law Society for approving foreign lawyers was not what was contemplated by the legislation, the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal has accepted its validity. The Legal Practitioners Ordinance clearly contemplates that the Law Society should assess whether an applicant to be admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong has the necessary qualifications (largely practical experience) before issuing a certificate stating which further examinations the applicant must pass before being admitted. However, the Law Society had begun a system, which it deemed to be more flexible because the exams were only carried out once a year, whereby it issued a certificate relating to exams before assessing whether the applicant had the requisite practical experience. The Court held that though this was contrary to the intention of the Ordinance, the Law Society's "flexible" procedures were acceptable.

Peter Langley, CEO at IP consulting firm Origin and consultant to Sidley & Austin, argues that in the future the owners of patents to financial products will control financial services

UK law firm Norton Rose is advising on a US$60 million cross-border Ijara leasing facility on behalf of Telekom Malaysia Berhad. The transaction is taking place in the context of recently enforced Malaysian capital controls and involves complex arrangements between investors from south-east Asia and the Middle East. Under the deal, equipment is to be sold then leased back to Telekom Malaysia Berhad using a special purpose vehicle located in Labuan. The transaction was conducted according to Islamic law, so that financing arrangements must be tied to assets rather than taking the form of cash advances with attached conditions. The Malaysian government also imposed a range of capital controls in early September, further complicating the deal arrangements.

Stock exchange equity transactions are settled through a complex procedure, the first stage taking place within the relevant regulated market, and the second stage performed by the clearing houses managed by the Bank of Italy.

The Hungarian Civil Code governs collateral agreements in a separate chapter. Some forms of collateral are accessory in nature, ie are dependent on the principal claim (eg a suretyship), others are independent. Section 249 of the Hungarian Civil Code expressly includes in the second group bank guarantees by which a bank obliges itself to make payment to the beneficiary in accordance with the conditions in the statement of indemnity, and within the agreed period of time.

Goldman Sachs’ strategy for Shell — to obtain funding at the lowest cost through currency swaps — has failed so far before the Canadian courts. Ron Schlumpf of CIBC Wood Gundy, Toronto explains the regulatory risks of derivatives

Spanish firm Uria & Menéndez has added 20 lawyers to its Madrid office by absorbing rival Bufete Armero. Managing partner Rodrigo Uria says of the new lawyers: "In practical terms they are two teams. One is a corporate, capital markets, finance team, which is in principal the same thing as we are already doing here, reinforcing our capabilities in this area. The other team is a team of litigators. Litigation is the rising star at Uria & Menéndez." Three Bufete Armero lawyers will become Uria partners: Coloma Armero and Luis Vidal, both corporate lawyers, and Javier Ruiz, a litigator. In July of this year Armero lost two tax partners to another of Spain's big firms, Cuatrecasas. Bufete Armero had been struggling since the death of founder Jose Maria Armero three years ago.

In the wake of Asia’s downturn, Korea has liberalized foreign investment laws and a similar move threatens the legal profession. Stephen Mulrenan reports from Seoul on why lawyers are divided over the issue of foreign competition

• US law firm White & Case has announced the appointement of five new partners. Michael Bühler, who specializes in international commercial arbitration and international business transactions, has been named partner at the firm's Paris office. International tax partner Barrye Wall has joined the Los Angeles office. Mark Powell, a specialist in European competition and trade law, has been named a partner at the Brussels office. Partner James McGuire has been hired by the New York office as a specialist in white collar crime, complex civil litigation and corporate internal investigations. John Sarchio has joined the New York office as partner. He is head of the firm's Insurance Industry Practice Group. • Paul Gonson, attorney for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has announced that he will retire at the end of the year. Mr Gonson became SECs counsel in 1979 and has argued more than 100 appellate cases on behalf of the Commission, including cases before the Supreme Court and all US Courts of Appeal. He will continue to act as part-time consultant to the Commission following his retirement.