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New tax incentives in the 1997 Budget approved by Parliament in July focused mainly on the financial sector. Effective for five years from assessment year 1998, they will be:

Meighen Demers, Toronto

A major reform of Japanese regulations, allowing companies to award share options to directors, moves regulation closer into line with the US and Europe. By Junko Mori of Asahi Law Offices, Tokyo

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.

Denton International, the European association, has added a Spanish member, Bufete Lupicinio Rodríguez. The addition of the 25-lawyer firm, which has offices in Madrid and Barcelona, brings the membership to seven.

New York's niche aviation, maritime and transport-related asset finance firm Haight, Gardner, Poor & Havens has agreed to a merger offer from Miami-based general practice firm Holland & Knight. "In the globalizing market you can no longer sit back and say we're Haight Gardner, we're the best in aviation, shipping and asset finance. That's not enough any more," explains Brian Starer, chairman of the firm. "The client base needs broader-based services. We found more and more over the last few years that we had to pass on business such as IPOs to other firms," he continues. "We decided that when we were approached by a firm with a whole shopping cart full of services we should jump into their basket."

• 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".

Greater transparency is being recognized as the key to identifying the trail of illicit funds in South America. By Rodolfo Gerardo Papa of Cárdenas, Cassagne & Asociados, Buenos Aires

The Amsterdam Treaty, to be signed in October, makes significant reforms but failed to answer the main questions of how to reach decisions in an enlarged EU. By Raymond O’ Rourke of Stanbrook and Hooper, Brussels