I hate the phrase ‘green shoots’, mainly because it was being used months back by a few economic commentators who only really wanted to be the first to say it. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have joined the dole queue, while the great British pound has fallen towards parity with the Euro.

In the bubble that is our legal world, signs of continuing decay abound. Even within the last 24 hours, 27 lawyers – 17 at City firm Trowers & Hamlins and 10 at national firm Eversheds – have lost their jobs, while an ever-growing number of upcoming young lawyers are being told by their prospective employers that they’re not wanted for a year (albeit some in the City receive a staggering amount of compensation for a year of playing Xbox).

Aside from the human cost, some parts of the profession have taken a direct hit from the worldwide squeeze on capital markets. This has not just been at high street level; many bigger firms have been renegotiating banking agreements to open up cash pipelines.

But among the smaller firms, the collapse of one of the profession’s lenders in October last year caused a further squeeze on access to funds. Key Business Finance (KBF) went down with the Icelandic banks, having provided loans to more than one in ten firms in England and Wales, mainly outside the top 100.

Yet there are small signs of a change of season. I will continue to avoid the aforementioned hated phrase, but it looks like the company’s revival (albeit in a slightly different form) will plug the gap it left in the market. Our special post-Easter press deadline prevents me from saying much more (I gather you’re due to receive your Gazette on Friday rather than Thursday this week) but there may be a few green shoots appearing in tomorrow’s issue.

Damn, I said it.