Instructions of the week

The 18 million management buy-out of Salter Housewares from its US parent company Avery Weigh-Tronix reaped new instructions for two firms: Buckinghamshire practice Moorcrofts Corporate Law acted for the Tonbridge-based company, while London firm Olswang received its first instruction from Barclays Private Equity, which backed the deal.East Anglian firm Mills & Reeve has won another high-profile education instruction, this time beating several other firms to be named principal adviser to Nottingham University.Hammond Suddards Edge has been retained as European counsel for US contract electrical manufacturer Jabil Circuit, for which it has just acted on the acquisition of the printed circuit board assembly and build business of Compaq in the UK.London firm Hobson Audley has completed its first deal for national accountancy firm Chantrey Vellacott DFK, which has purchased MSLTA and CVLTA, accountants who specialise in the licensing trade, from Moore Stephens, advised by Fynn & Partners.Vernon Building Society, which is based in the north-west, has appointed Stockport firm O'Neill Patient as its preferred solicitors on several new mortgage products.Liverpool firm Cuff Roberts has landed Manchester-based Legendary Property Company as a new client.

Partner Ian Black said this showed that Liverpool firms are as capable as those in other cities of attracting work from outside their area.The Woolwich has rewarded Hertfordshire firm Breeze & Wyles for opening an office in Bishop's Stortford by adding it to the company's bulk remortgage panel for Dartford.

It will double the 300 instructions a month Breeze & Wyles currently receives from being on the Oxford panel.Harrisons, the English law firm run in Yugoslavia by former City solicitor Mark Harrison, has been appointed by the Serbian government to act on the privatisation and sale of Beopetrol, the country's second largest gasoline retail company.

It is the largest privatisation in Serbia to date.

And the Macedonian government has appointed Harrisons to act on the privatisation and sale of Elektrostopanstvo na Macedonija, the state electricity company.