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Chicago-based McDermott, Will & Emery has opened a Silicon Valley office. The office will focus on high technology issues and intellectual property. It is the firm's 11th office, and eighth within the US. "The opening of a Silicon Valley office is a natural geographic extension of our high technology and intellectual property practice," says chairman Larry Gerber. "The demand for legal counsel on complex intellectual property issues and international work is so high that we felt it necessary to expand our west coast capabilities."

UK firm Linklaters & Paines overtakes US rival Davis Polk & Wardwell to head this year’s ranking of the leading advisers on international equity issues. But other firms are catching up. Richard Forster and Robert Dwyer report

The merger between big six professional advisory and accounting firms Coopers & Lybrand and Price Waterhouse will bring together over 1000 lawyers worldwide, according to figures exclusively compiled by International Financial Law Review. The figures, gathered for the IFLRev 1000 Directory (to be published shortly), give an insight into the extent of the ambitions of the big six firms in the legal field. Alfred Fink, a lawyer in the Paris offices of Coopers & Lybrand, says: "This is the perfect mix. They are in locations where we aren't, such as Russia. Also, Price Waterhouse is very strong in Latin America, but we are stronger in Europe than they are."

• New York's Chadbourne & Parke LLP has made seven lawyers partners. They are: in Singapore, Bruce Rader (corporate and project finance); in Moscow, Mikhail Rozenberg (Russian practice); in Washington DC, Thomas Hechl (Russian practice and project finance); and in New York, Douglas Fried (project finance), Claude Serfilippi (corporate finance), Drew Wintringham (intellectual property) and Nancy Zajac (leasing).

Since 1984, the Statute on the Acquisition of Real Estate by Foreigners in Switzerland, commonly known as the Lex Friedrich, limits the acquisition of real estate by persons domiciled in a foreign country and by foreigners living in Switzerland. The purpose of the statute, set forth in Article 1, is "to prevent foreign control of domestic land". Foreigners were only allowed to acquire land in Switzerland under the conditions set out in the Lex Friedrich.

Recent changes in the rules of capital tax on shares traded on the Stockholm Stock Exchange created considerable turmoil. In particular, they affected foreign shareholders because companies have changed the listing of their shares to avoid tax increases.

Two new Acts of Parliament have introduced far-reaching reforms to the rules governing the privatization of state-owned companies in Poland. The first Act, of August 8 1996, abolished the Ministry of Privatizations, and, as of October 1 1996, transferred its functions to the Treasury Ministry. The second Act, of August 30 1996, amended the terms and conditions of the sale and privatization of state-owned companies. It came into force on April 8 1997.

Since November 1993, Brazilian financial institutions have been allowed to acquire non-financial asset-backed securities (non-financial ABSs) issued by Brazilian Special Purposes Companies (SPCs). These domestic non-financial securitizations have been successfully done under the terms of the National Monetary Council's Resolution 2,026 of 1993. The non-financial assets have been transferred by Brazilian originators to the SPC and used to guarantee ABSs issued by the SPC. Even in cases where the Brazilian originators were subject to bankruptcy proceedings, the credit rights of the ABS holders were not affected.

The merger of J&A Garrigues and Andersen ALT has accelerated the process of change in Spain. Defensive reactions have already begun and nothing will be the same again. Nick Ferguson reports

The Allen Committee’s Final Report strikes a blow for greater transparency and accountability in corporate governance in Canada. By Thomas Allen and Andrew Fleming of Ogilvy Renault, Toronto and London