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US drugs company Johnson & Johnson is buying orthopaedic supplies company DePuy for US$3.5 billion. Roche Holding, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, is selling its 84% stake in DePuy to the company. Cravath Swaine & Moore is representing Johnson & Johnson of New Jersey. The team of lawyers includes partners Robert Kindler (corporate), Robert Townsend (corporate) and Stephen Gordon (tax).

Allen & Overy's Frankfurt office has poached two partners from rival firms. Johannes Bruski was a partner with German firm Bruckhaus Westrick Heller Löber. Reinhard Hermes was formerly a partner in US firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius's Frankfurt office. Bruski specializes in asset finance and cross-border leasing. He is also experienced in corporate mergers & acquisitions. He joins Allen & Overy's asset finance practice.

UK firm Linklaters & Paines has been hired by British Petroleum for its US$50 billion agreed takeover of Amoco in the US. The oil company merger is the world's largest industrial merger and lawyer's fees are likely to be considerable. The resulting company, BP Amoco plc, will have a market capitalization of US$110 billion with 100,000 employees worldwide. It will be one of the three biggest oil companies in the world along with Royal Dutch/Shell and Exxon. The equity split will be 60% to BP shareholders and 40% to Amoco shareholders. Advising Amoco on the transaction in the US are Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz partners Andrew Brownstein and Martin Lipton. UK counsel to Amoco is Freshfields, with a team including senior partner Anthony Salz, corporate partners William Lawes and Neil Radford, EU law partners Rachel Brandenburger and John Davies, and tax partners Francis Sandison and Sarah Falk.

German firm Hengeler Mueller Weitzel Wirtz has put together the innovative system that will clear the majority of euro transactions once the single European currency is introduced. Despite claims that it was impossible to produce a multilateral cross-border netting system whose rights and obligations would be upheld in the various jurisdictions in insolvency situations, the new Single Obligation structure, which provides the basis for the EBA clearing system, meets all criteria and has won acclaim from all participating countries.

Wilde Sapte, the UK firm that intended to link with Arthur Andersen, is encountering further problems after the failure of its merger in June. Lawyers are continuing to leave, including Paris partner Thomas McDonald and assistant Matthieu de Varax. The New York office has closed and the resident partner Diarmuid Brennan and his assistant have left. McDonald, who specializes in asset finance, is to join White & Case's Paris office with two assistants. De Varax is moving to Simmons & Simmons' Paris office with two other lawyers. He will be made up to partner. The moves leave the Paris office with two remaining partners.

The Ohada Treaty marks an ambitious project by 16 central and west African countries to harmonize their commercial law. They hope to extend the project across the continent and so help boost economic growth. By Rebecca Major of Herbert Smith, Paris

Uncertainty in Irish legislation and case law has been unhelpful to the development of the Irish credit derivatives market and clarification is needed. By Judith Lawless of McCann FitzGerald, Dublin

In December 1997, the EU acknowledged Estonia’s efforts to build a thriving economy in just six years of independence: the country is now the first former Soviet state negotiating EU membership. Since 1992, enthusiastic governments have acted fast to dismantle the old structures, privatize state-owned companies and set up a monetary reform based on a currency board.

Gary Spiess, general counsel at BankBoston, Boston, talks to Shane Sorenson

In the second part of a round table on high-yield issues in Europe, practitioners, investors and bankers discuss due diligence and the disclosure requirements for companies coming to the market.