These days insolvency lawyers would like to see themselves portrayed as company doctors prescribing medicine that might taste bad but will cure the patient rather than as the right-hand hatchet men of the corporate grim reaper. The extent to which the managements of companies that come into their hands accept this self-image is unclear. What is certain is that in the present dismal economic climate insolvency lawyers look likely to experience a mini-boom in demand for their services. "It's the endless debate of the cocktail party - how busy are we going to get?" says Nigel Barnett, a partner in insolvency with London law firm Denton Wilde Sapte, "I think that generally the perception is that we will get busier."
There may, however, be a few obstacles in the way of firms that are tempted to try to capitalize on this slump-induced boom by, for example, "repurposing" their underemployed M&A lawyers as restructuring specialists.