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Settlement systems for national and cross-border payments carry risks relating to the insolvency of participants. A new legal basis for netting systems in the EU provides comfort. By Marianne Walsh and Markus Wellinger of Van Bael & Bellis, Brussels

In the second of his series considering possible changes to bond documentation to ease sovereign debt problems, Lee C Buchheit of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, New York, considers the majority action clause

US firm Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle has opened an office in Milan. A joint venture with Italian firm Studio Legale Gilioli, the office is headed by partner Eric Gilioli and takes the name Curtis, Mallet-Prevost & Gilioli. Curtis Mallet-Prevost sees Italy as an important addition to its European network of offices in Frankfurt, London and Paris. Managing partner of the firm George Kahale explains: "There is a lot of international work, both inbound and outbound, between Italy and the US. Our firm is also very active in Latin America and the Middle East and we have existing business in Milan representing a number of multinationals doing business in those areas." The firm will aim to build on existing strengths including corporate M&A work, joint ventures and project finance.

The Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE) has embarked on its most ambitious project yet, the creation of an electronic exchange. With a view to improving its connectivity, speeding up securities transactions and cutting costs, the CSE has signed a contract with an Australian computer firm to develop and install the required equipment and software. Full computerization of trading as well as back office procedures, ie clearing and settlement, is scheduled to be operational by mid-1999. The customization and testing of the electronic dealing system is under way. The same system architecture is already used by the Geneva, Moscow and Oslo stock exchanges. Even though the exchange is to go on-line, the trading floor will continue to exist for some time. Remote-terminal-based trading will follow at a later stage. The provision of central clearing facilities for stock exchange transactions under the electronic system was put out to tender and won by a major Cypriot banking institution.

• Altman Weil, the US legal management consulting firm, has poached Rees Morrison from Arthur Andersen's Legal Business Consulting Group. Morrison, who has been a consultant for ten years, joins as a principal and will be in charge of a number of critical areas for government and corporate law departments, such as outside counsel cost control, upgrading technology and organization and reengineering process. • Debevoise & Plimpton has promoted four new partners in its New York office, as of July 1. David Bernstein is a litigator and a member of the firm's intellectual property practice group. Paul Loughran works in the corporate department and the securities practice group. David Mason is a member of the tax department and the investment management group, and a specialist in executive compensation. Christopher Tahbaz is a litigator focusing on complex commercial litigation and consumer class action.

UK firms have traditionally led the development of top tier international legal practices. Linklaters’ European merger may speed up the race for global dominance. Nick Ferguson reports

Riding high on London’s boom, foreign lawyers are benefitting from increasing US interest in Europe ahead of European Economic and Monetary Union. Barbara Galli reports

New York-based LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae has announced the opening of two new foreign offices, in Paris and Sao Paulo. In Paris, LeBoeuf has taken over the French practice of Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine. Donovan has been struggling for survival since Californian rival Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe poached two-thirds of its lawyers in April, after an unsuccessful attempt to merge. James Johnson, managing partner of LeBoeuf's London office comments: "Donovan's disruption provided us with a great opportunity to get a fine office, already familiar with an American firm, and lawyers which many of us already knew." Former Donovan partners René de Monseignat, Alain de Foucaud and Reid Feldman have been made partners in LeBoeuf, with Laurent Moury and Olivier Laude joining as counsel. US partner Douglas Hawes will move to Paris to organize the integration of the office into LeBoeuf's international network. The office will also have eight associates and it will maintain its specialization in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Deputy managing partner of the office, Alain de Foucaud, explains: "LeBoeuf is an important firm with a solid reputation in the US, and was willing to expand across Europe and internationally. The team of avocats has worked together for the past three years and we wanted to keep it intact and preserve our culture. It is easier this way because there are fewer changes both for the clients and for our lawyers." In Sao Paulo, local firm Tavares Guerreiro Advogados has affiliated with LeBoeuf.

China has launched a programme of reforms to the regulation of the financial sector. The insurance industry is already open to foreign competition, most in the form of joint ventures. By Jingzhou Tao of Coudert Brothers, Beijing

Coca Cola Beverages (CCB), one of the ten anchor bottlers within the Coca-Cola system and the largest bottler of carbonated soft drinks in Central and Europe has been floated on the London Stock Exchange. The flotation valued the company at over £1.7 billion (US$2.8 billion). Warburg Dillon Reed acted as sponsor and bookrunner. CCB was created by the demerger of the bottling business of Coca-Cola Amatil in 12 countries in central and eastern Europe and the acquisitionof The Coca-Cola Company's bottling operations in northern and central Italy.