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Dutch firm Trenité van Doorne is the first foreign law firm to open in Cuba. It officially opened the Havana office on November 12, with two Dutch lawyers, Jan Willem Bitter and Sebastiaan Berger, and one Cuban, Alejandro Cruz Román. Bitter explains the firm has had links in Cuba since the early 1990s, with lawyers frequently handling business there. Clients of the firm's Curaçao office began to be active in Cuba in the late 1980s. For the firm, the office is just a natural extension of these operations.

San Francisco-based Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe is set to join the influx of US firms entering the London market. New York managing partner Michael Volstad says: "Sometime relatively early next year we should have an office in London; we are actively looking to get involved there." The firm, which is focusing on structured finance, has advertised for English lawyers and intends to have an English team in London and Tokyo. An advertisement, believed to be for Orrick Herrington, appeared recently in the legal press. It offered between US$500,000 and US$1 million for English-law qualified partners in the structured and project finance fields. It claims to be "an exceptional start-up opportunity".

The Swiss government has decided that no statutory change is necessary; existing legal doctrines should ensure continuity of contracts. By Martin Anderson and Urs Schenker of Baker & McKenzie, Geneva and Zurich

The leading international trade associations have combined to produce market conventions for the euro. They are winning increasing acceptance across Europe. By Clifford R Dammers of the International Primary Market Association, London

Credit Lyonnais is selling its majority shareholding in Woodchester Investments to GE Capital for a cash consideration of £591 million (US$958 million) to GE Capital. UK firm Allen & Overy and Irish firm William Fry is advising Woodchester and UK firm Clifford Chance is representing GE Capital.

German firm Bruckhaus Westrick Stegemann is to merge with Austria's Heller, Löber, Bahn & Partners. This, the first cross-border merger between a German and an Austrian firm, takes effect from January 1 1998. "We at Bruckhaus do not want to end up as a German niche firm, we want to be an international firm. We are starting from our home market, the continent," explains Burkhard Bastuck, a partner in Bruckhaus's Frankfurt office. His Dusseldorf-based partner Günter Beckmann agrees: "Focusing our strengths in central Europe will also provide us with a foundation for expanded business in western Europe and in regions with Anglo-American legal traditions."

As a follow-up to October’s equities survey, International Financial Law Review asked leading managers and issuers what they look for from their lawyers. A merger is one answer. Nick Ferguson reports

Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), the Swiss-US investment bank, has agreed to buy the UK and continental European equities businesses from Barclays de Zoete Wedd, the investment banking arm of Barclays Bank. The transaction is expected to complete in early 1998. UK firm Lovell White Durrant, through offices in London and overseas, is representing Barclays on the transaction. Partners David Harris and Hugh Nineham lead the Lovell team. The in-house team at Barclays is led by Howard Trust, group general counsel, assisted by Rachel Harris and Mark Edwards.

The House of Lords decided on October 30 in the landmark case of Morris v Agrichemicals (also called BCCI No. 8), that it is legally possible for a bank to take an equitable charge over money deposited with it. This ruling ends more than a decade of controversy caused by the decision in Re Charge Card Services Limited [1986] when Millett J stated that a charge-back was "conceptually impossible".

With the remaining barriers between cantons being dismantled and clients demanding specialist expertise, the traditional divisions within the Swiss market are disappearing. Paul Lee reports