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Halliburton, the second-largest company in the oil services industry, is to buy Dresser Industries, the third-largest, in a US$8.1 billion stock swap. The deal will create a company with US$16 billion in combined revenue, and relegates Schlumberger, at present the world's largest oil-services group with revenues of US$11 billion, to second place. The move is expected to lead to further consolidation within the industry. US firm Vinson & Elkins, Houston, represented Halliburton. Lead partner was mergers and acquisitions specialist Bill Joor. The Houston office was assisted by a team in the Washington DC office, working on antitrust issues and led by Ky Ewing. Weil, Gotshal & Manges, New York, advised Dresser Industries. Dennis Block, mergers and acquisitions partner, coordinated the lawyers.

In a landmark judgment of the Texas Supreme Court, a partner at a Houston firm has lost her unfair dismissal case after she was sacked for querying a colleague's bills. Critics of the decision fear the ruling could discourage lawyers from fulfilling their ethical obligations. Houston firm Butler & Binion fired Colette Bohatch after she became concerned about fees charged to a client, Pennzoil, by John McDonald, the managing partner of the Washington office. Bohatch copied portions of McDonald's time diary and asked the firm's managing partner to investigate. The next day McDonald told Bohatch that Pennzoil was dissatisfied with her work. An internal investigation into Bohatch's complaints was carried out but no evidence of wrongdoing was found. Bohatch was advised to find another job and was told to leave the offices a year later.

US firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom is advising Alltel Corporation in its bid for 360 Communications. Chicago firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal is counsel to 360 Communications. The proposed acquisition includes a stock swap, valued at US$4 billion, and the assumption of 360 Communications's US$1.8 billion debt. The companies have reached an accord on the merger and it has been approved by both boards.

Indonesia offers two options to creditors: bankruptcy and moratorium law. The bankruptcy law is more attractive and designed for their benefit. By Robert N Hornick of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, New York

Peruvian company Minera Yanacocha was formed by a group of investors in 1992 to exploit a mine in the northern region of Cajamarca. The company today holds one of the most attractive gold deposits in the world, with an estimated production of 1 million ounces of gold a year. It is also the subject of shareholder litigation over shares worth more than US$100 million, now awaiting a final vote in the Supreme Court and representing the most important legal claim in Peru's mining history.

As US firms target the international asset-backed securities market, Richard Forster and Stephen Mulrenan examine the firms behind the deals of 1997 and the prospects for securitization in 1998.

The Supreme Court has confirmed a decision passed by an Appellate Commercial Court in June 1995 In re NL SA v Bull Argentina SA, challenging the validity of agreements entered into among shareholders of Argentine corporations.

After currency devaluation in Asia, lenders and borrowers are scrutinizing material adverse change (MAC) clauses to determine their respective positions. By Richard M Gray of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, Singapore

The crisis in Asia has boosted the existing dangers of failures in project finance transactions. This article outlines the ways to find a solution to failures. By Troy Alexander of White & Case LLP, New York

Japan’s legal system has a range of alternatives for insolvency proceedings. Bankruptcy is by far the most common. By Naoaki Eguchi and Yoshiaki Muto of Tokyo Aoyama Law Office and Jeremy Pitts of Baker & McKenzie, Toyko