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US utilities group PacifiCorp is offering to buy all outstanding common shares of the UK's Energy Group for about US$5.8 billion. PacifiCorp will also assume US$3.8 billion of The Energy Group's debt. This is the largest transaction in the UK utility industry and is an example of the growing tendency among US utilities companies to invest in the deregulating UK market.

US firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy is restaffing its Russian office. The move follows its decision to withdraw its lawyers in October 1996 after David Slade left for Allen & Overy. Since then, all the firm's Russian work has been done out of its London and New York offices. The re-entry into Russia was announced with the appointment of Holly Nielson as managing partner of the Moscow office. Nielson is expected to head an initial team of three associates, two of whom will be Russian. Milbank hopes to double the number of lawyers within a year. The firm aims to offer specialization in capital markets, banking and project finance law.

• Serge Durox, former head of the legal department of BNP Capital Markets, is joining New York-based Coudert Brothers as a partner. Now based in London, Durox says he will work closely with the Paris, London, Moscow and New York offices, with particular involvement in the practices the London and Paris offices are building jointly. Jacques Buhart, managing partner of Coudert Frères, the firm's Paris office, says Durox "will be involved in developing the firm's derivatives practice in France".

The Court of Appeal upheld, among other things, the freedom of contract in Citicorp Investment Bank (Singapore) v Wee Ah Kee. Under a loan agreement to fund Wee's purchase of shares in CIL, Wee granted Citicorp a charge over CIL shares to secure his indebtedness and a call option to purchase 30% of the CIL shares acquired using the loan.

France’s legal market is now one of the most crowded in Europe. Samantha Wigham went to Paris to find out how French firms are coping with the challenge thrown down by the big six and international competitors

Southern US firms McGuire, Woods, Battle & Boothe LLP and Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy LLP, are in merger talks. Richmond-based McGuire Woods and Atlanta's Powell Goldstein could complete discussions and combine by the end of 1997.

The recent publication of the German Banking Supervisory Authority’s Circular 4/97 clears the way for the development of a significant ABS market in the Federal Republic. By Alexander Vogt and Kurt Dittrich of Oppenhoff & Rädler, Frankfurt

The first International Financial Law Review survey of the mergers and acquisitions market has identified the leading firms advising on deals worth US$1 billion or more. By Richard Forster

US firms are putting less weight on lawyer billings and are using more objective criteria to determine partner compensation, according to a survey report published by consultants Altman Weil Pensa. The firm's previous survey of this sort, in 1993, found that personal fees billed was the most important factor in calculating lawyers' compensation. The new survey has found that business origination has become the most significant determinant.

Avis Europe, the leading car rental company in Europe, has floated for the second time on the London Stock Exchange, at 124 pence a share. The company first listed in 1986, after which it was bought by a consortium led by Belgian group D'Ieteren.