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Kathleen Moriarty, partner with the New York office of US firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, has joined the corporate group of Wall Street firm Carter, Ledyard & Milburn. Moriarty, who specializes in investment trusts and structured finance, earned the name 'Spider Woman' after advising the American Stock Exchange on the creation of an investment trust for the trading of SPDRs (Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts). These securities can be traded all day on the stock exchange as shares in a unit trust. Before the launch of the SPDR Trust in 1993, investors could only trade their shares in index funds once at the end of each trading day. Moriarty, who has also structured several high-profile municipal bond issues for New York landmarks, joined Carter, Ledyard as a partner on March 17. "Kathleen is an important addition to the corporate practice because of her substantial knowledge of investment companies," says chairman of the group, Robert McTamaney.

The Life and Death of an Infrastructure Project, 2nd ed.

UK firms have ambitious plans for US law capability and expansion. But they are facing competition from US, regional and big six-linked firms. Samantha Wigham reports

The last 18 months have seen an explosion in the number and size of US firms with English law capability in their London offices. Other firms are steadfastly following their own strategy. Paul Lee reports

UK firm Lovell White Durrant's Paris office has gained a partner and two senior associates, and expects to announce two further appointments soon. At the same time, it loses a lawyer to rival Norton Rose. Lovell White partner Milan Chromocek moves from Prague to boost the intellectual property practice in Paris. Philippe Thomas, senior associate at local firm JC Goldsmith, becomes senior associate at Lovell White. He specializes in commercial law. Serge Cohen joins from US firm Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in Paris, where he was a senior associate specializing in mergers and acquisitions.

"The accountants have lost the first round," says Dolph Stuyling de Lange, general secretary of Dutch/Belgian firm Loeff Claeys Verbeke. On February 7 the District Court of Amsterdam upheld the Dutch bar rules banning mergers between accounting and law firms.

Spanish firms J & A Garrigues and Arthur Andersen ALT have completed their merger with partners approving the new partnership on January 31 1997. The firm will be known as J & A Garrigues Andersen with Andersen staff relocating to Garrigues' offices as much for symbolic as practical reasons. "We want to differentiate them clearly and move them away from where they were," comments Ramon Lladó, partner from the former J & A Garrigues.

• US firm Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly has opened an office in Geneva. Jean Russotto, managing partner in the firm's Brussels office, will work out of the office of Swiss firm Cabinet Mayor in Geneva. The new office is to complement the work the firm does in Brussels in financial services, corporate, trade and tax law.

Siebe, the UK's largest diversified engineering company, issued US$250 million of global notes under US law. The notes were offered under Rule 144A and Regulation S.

International investment bank Morgan Stanley is to merge with US retail financial services firm Dean Witter, Discover. The merger will create the US's biggest securities firm in terms of capital, with an estimated market capitalization of US$20 billion and total assets under management of US$270 billion.