Insolvency practitioners have always been the grim reapers of the profession; in economic parlance their trade is 'counter-cyclical', meaning that when the economy is struggling and lots of businesses are going bust, they get busier and grow.And although most insolvency departments now have chang ed their names to things like 'restructuring' and 'corporate rescue', partly because images of undertakers and vultures are unappealing, they still thrive when businesses are failing, and they seem to be getting busy in the UK just now.Mark Hyde, Clifford Chance's global head of insolvency and restructuring, says the work is building up.

'It's fair to say there's been an upturn in the last few months.' And the pattern is not just in the City among the giants.The picture is confirmed by Jan Murdoch, a barrister and one of three insolvency lawyers in 30-partner Bournemouth-based commercial firm Lester Aldridge, who says: 'It has been exceptionally busy since about October last year.'And in the north, Stephen Baylis, a Leeds partner with Hammond Suddards Edge, says: 'Things have definitely picked up in November and December.' He monitors the number of insolvencies and receiverships formally advertised in the pages of the Yorkshire Post, and says: 'It's the busiest I've seen for years.'Law firms of contrasting sizes adapt in different ways to this change in market conditions.

The big City law firms are distinct animals from the ones ensnared in the last recession in the 1980s -- not just larger, but now global as well, and the adjustments in organisation to meet economic change are more evolutionary.

They can redeploy rather than having to hire new lawyers.Clifford Chance's insolvency and restructuring group in London, for example, has four partners 'through thick and thin', plus 14 associates.

But, according to economic conditions, other partners can be drafted in.Mr Hyde says: 'We have a number of general banking partners with considerable experience in restructuring.

In good times (for the economy) they will be involved in new bank lending and acquisition finance, but when there is a downturn [they] will turn to their tried and tested restructuring expertise.' Half a dozen are deployed in this way.City firms' business is less dependent than in the past on the UK economy.

The upturn in restructuring and insolvency began much earlier in the US, and the business generated there keeps London busy too.

Mr Hyde says: 'I wouldn't say we'd been idle even before the last two or three months.

Having an international practice, we've been doing quite a lot of work where New York has been advising a bank group which has European interests.

More and more insolvencies transcend the Atlantic and indeed Europe, and clients need lawyers on both sides of the Atlantic.'Insolvencies in Asia have similarly kept partners occupied at the big City firms.

'One of the partners in our group is currently in Bangkok,' Mr Hyde says.

He himself spent most of 1998 and 1999 in Hong Kong advising the liquidators of a large group.Beyond the City, insolvency and restructuring departments are growing too.Mr Baylis says the Hammond Suddards Edge team, which is now called 'business finance and recovery', has doubled its number of fee-earners in a year.

There are now 15 insolvency fee-earners in Leeds, and nine each in Birmingham London and Manchester.In the north-west, Andrew Livesey, head of the corporate recovery and insolvency team at Taylors in Blackburn, says the 'recession' follows a long period of difficult trading conditions for client businesses, mainly brought on by the strong pound.The six-partner firm realised the pound would stay strong in the future.

While the City and big regional firms' clients are chiefly lenders, his are mainly borrowers.

'Our clients used to have large cash reserves but they are now relying on commercial and bank lending,' he says.

His team has been built from scratch to three since he arrived from Manchester firm Halliwell Landau in the second half of last year.

'I expect it to grow further,' he says.

And Lester Aldridge, too, has boosted the team from two to three by hiring associate Matthew Barker from Blake Lapthorn.So, national and local law firms are adapting to this economic downturn, which is different in many ways from the slump of the early 1990s, and not just because it is -- so far -- less severe.At all levels there is a greater emphasis on reviving rather than dismembering the patient, which suggests the change of name from insolvency to more positive alternatives is not just marketing -- it reflects a changed reality.As Mr Livesey says: 'The difference from the big recession of the 1980s is that the banks then were caught unprepared, and they rushed into receiver-ships.

They are much more aware now.' He says the companies and their advisers monitor finances more closely.

'They can go to the banks with a restructuring package, rather than waiting until it is too late and the banks call them in.'Mr Hyde agrees, although he points out there were restructurings or refinancings last time too and cites Heron, the property group, Rupert Murdoch's media empire, and the Queen's Moat hotel group as successful examples.

'There is more of it now because bank lenders are more reluctant for a formal insolvency than they would have been in the past, for political as well as financial reasons.

Everybody wants to try to work out the situation, if it can be done.'He says another difference this time is that lending structures have become more complex.

As well as bank lending, there are high yield debts, with bondholders, and often the bonds are traded, so there are debt traders with an interest too.

'They all want a seat at the table, and often you get tensions.'Not surprisingly, the upturn in business and the growing role of the insolvency lawyer have already begun to influence the legal recruitment market.

As Mr Hyde says: 'If you are a reasonably experienced lawyer with insolvency restructuring skills, you are a highly marketable commodity.

The problem is there has not been a lot of insolvency work about, and most firms do not have an abundance of people with these skills.

At the lower end, everybody will be training people up.'He predicts insolvency will become a more attractive option to new recruits.

'If you're a young lawyer you have to do very long hours, and you want to do work which is interesting and in the public eye.

It is now much easier to attract people to restructuring and insolvency work, because that's the sort of thing you're going to read about in the papers.'As a case in point, Ms Murdoch says Lester Aldridge will soon be considering taking on a trainee in the group.Mr Baylis for one hopes the slowdown gets no worse.

'There are always going to be businesses who get their financial planning wrong,' he says.

At the moment, he says, acting for lenders the job is often a case of 'nursing the business along until somebody comes along to take it on'.And there is still money to invest swilling around.

'In my view even insolvency lawyers don't want a recession,' Mr Baylis says.

'Then there is nobody with money to take businesses on.

I've been doing insolvency for 12 years, and in my experience I'd rather have a boom.'Ms Murdoch agrees.

When there is a recession, banks have less time to think.

'They are less recovery-minded, more butcher-minded,' she says matter-of-factly.