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Dutch employment services company, Randstadt, is acquiring Strategix from its Florida competitor Accustaff. The deal, valued at $850 million, will increase the temporary staffing business of Ranstadt's operations in the US. Ranstadt is being advised from New York by Davis Polk & Wardwell. The team of lawyers is headed by partners David Ferguson (tax), Michael Mollerus (tax) and Gail Flesher (environmental).

Geoffrey Yeowart of Lovell White Durrant, London, updates the answers given in our December 1997 issue to the most frequently asked legal questions

In connection with the financial and political crises that swept Russia in August and September, the Russian government has adopted certain extraordinary measures, including the restructuring of the state's obligations under widely-held debt securities, and a moratorium on repayment of certain other hard currency debts. Creditor losses as a result of these measures are potentially enormous; by some estimates, in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Among other effects, the new measures have precipitated the effective collapse of the Russian banking system. From a legal perspective, the imposition of the measures has raised a host of issues, including the effective remedies available to bond creditors and the status of private debtor obligations in view of the moratorium.

Freshfields, in a further move to build its US offices, has poached four partners from New York firm Milbank Tweed Hadley and McCloy. Ted Burke (project finance), Jonathan Rod (project bond finance) and Brian Rance (structured finance and derivatives) will join as partners in the New York office. Gregory May (tax) will join the Washington, DC office. Freshfields is concentrating on building up its project finance practice. Ian Terry, managing partner, says: "We will now have project finance specialists in all of the major jurisdictions. Expansion in the US will enable us to consolidate our practice with our US client base."

ING Group has purchased a leading stake in German bank BHF-Bank. The deal, which is worth DM 2.5 billion ($1.4 billion), involved a number of separate transactions through which ING increased its holding of BHF-Bank shares from 4.5% to 39%. ING is now the largest single shareholder of BHF-Bank. The transaction was completed on September 14. Final completion of the acquisition is dependent on gaining the consent of the regulatory authorities. The shares were sold by Allianz, DG Bank and Münchener Rück.

As a participating member state in the first group of countries to adopt the single currency in 1999, Portugal must ensure a smooth and effective transition to the euro in respect of the securities market.

A recent Court of Appeal decision (Russell McVeagh McKenzie Bartleet v Tower Corporation) provides a useful indication to New Zealand law firms of the judiciary's approach to Chinese walls in large firms.

Delegates at the IBA's Vancouver conference heard how the introduction of the euro will lead to a vast unified European capital market, with the ability to rival the US and Japan. But, says Charles Proctor, a capital markets partner at UK firm Norton Rose, the creation of a European Securities Commission is necessary if the euro market is to become internationally credible. Proctor, speaking at the session Securities - related problems of the Euro, explained how the European Central Bank will have no specific powers over the securities markets. A European Securities Commission would unify the rules applicable to the public debt/equity markets across all member states, not solely the euro-zone. This would enhance the credibility of the euro and of the European financial markets and encourage free movement of capital across the EU.

The International Bar Association's Council has passed a resolution on multidisciplinary practices (MDPs), its first acknowledgment that the joining of legal and accountancy practices is inevitable. The resolution calls on national regulators, including authorities which promote trade in services, to establish rules on MDPs to protect both practitioners and clients. Such rules should include measures to protect lawyers' independence and to prevent MDPs from representing conflicting interests. Client privilege and confidentiality should also be safeguarded.

The recent US$200 million international placement of 10-year subordinated notes by Komercni Banka, the Czech Republic's largest commercial bank, was in many respects a watershed. The transaction constituted the first international offering by a bank in central and eastern Europe of subordinated debt that qualifies for inclusion in the bank's regulatory capital base. At a time when Komercni Banka, like most other Czech banks, was required to increase its provisions for classified loans, the issue of the notes enabled the bank to shore up its balance sheet and maintain an acceptable risk capital ratio without issuing new equity. From a legal perspective, the transaction presented a number of novel issues requiring innovative solutions. One of the most vexing challenges was structuring a subordination clause that satisfied both the international marketplace and Czech regulators, because neither existing banking regulations nor the Czech Bankruptcy Act recognized a concept of subordination consistent with international practice and standards. This article examines how the lawyers on the transaction managed to fit a square peg into a round hole to accomplish this feat.