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Joseph Polizzotto, Managing Director and Deputy General Counsel, Lehman Brothers, New York, talks to Richard Forster

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".

New York's Simpson Thacher & Bartlett is opening a full office in Los Angeles after promoting associate Dan Clinver to partnership. The firm has had a presence in Los Angeles for some time, primarily to service key client Seagram, the acquisitive Canadian entertainment and drinks group. New partner Dan Clinver will head the office focusing on corporate matters.

Despite confusion created by a speech made to the IBA by a leading Japanese lawyer, it is clear that reforms to the Japanese legal market will not enable international firms to hire Japanese lawyers (bengoshi). Foreign firms in Japan have been lobbying the ministry of justice commission to fully liberalize the legal system, and the decision to continue restrictions on foreign firms in Tokyo has been greeted with disappointment. Toshiro Nishimura, name partner of Nishimura & Partners and member of the ministry of justice commission, caused the confusion when speaking of the advancement of partnerships between Japanese and international firms. However, he has since clarified that he was referring to the decision to relax the rules on joint enterprises. The few firms which work in a joint enterprise will now be able to work on all areas of international law, including litigation. Work on any domestic law is still forbidden. Nishimura claims the reforms will be beneficial to foreign firms. He says: "I expect the number of firms with cooperation pacts to rise, this should be an incentive for firms."

US firm Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton is to open an Italian office in early 1998. Based in Rome, the office will have about eight lawyers, both US and Italian qualified recruited from its other European offices. Cleary Gottlieb will be only the third US firm to open in Italy. However, the decision reflects the growing interest of many US and UK firms in Italy. Ned Stiles, partner ofa firm in Washington, sees the move as a natural progression: "We have a significant amount of business in Italy already, and our assessment was that it was right [to open an office]."

• UK firm Simmons & Simmons has poached Angus Phang from US firm Baker & McKenzie's Hong Kong office. Phang will head the firm's Asia Pacific IP practice as partner Christopher Head moves from Hong Kong to create a New York IP department.The firm has also hired immigration specialist Garth Coates from rival City firm Lovell White Durrant. Coates, former head of immigration at Lovell's will join Hilary Belchak's immigration group at Simmons. "His experience and expertise will be invaluable in enabling us to fulfill the increasingly complex needs of our clients, both in the UK and overseas across all industry sectors," Belchak said.

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."

On December 26 1996, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of Paraguay upheld the constitutionality of Law No. 814/96, the so-called Pangrazio Law, which proposed to indemnify all account holders incurring losses with the commercial banks that collapsed following the May 1995 banking crisis in Paraguay. The scope of the indemnification authorized by the law included the holders of unregistered accounts — that is, accounts represented by bearer deposit receipts, as opposed to accounts registered in the names of the holders.

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

In a key policy speech given by the Deputy Prime Minister, who chairs the Financial Sector Review Group, it was made clear that the Singapore government, in its focus on making Singapore a regional financial centre, is rethinking its entire strategy. In particular, the emphasis will now be shifted from regulation to supervision of the financial sector, with greater reliance placed on market forces and market discipline and on full information disclosure rather than extensive regulations to protect investors. Greater transparency will also be provided in regulations, and attention will be focussed on systemic risk rather than undue protection of individual participants, products or projects.