The economic recession has brought a work bonanza for solicitor insolvency practitioners.

And among their clients have been a growing number of fellow solicitors, although exactly how many have hit the financial s kids is unknown.The scale of the problem is very difficult to track because of the courts' failure to notify the Law Society of every solicitor bankruptcy.

Last year, the Society was alerted to 38 bankruptcy orders but it is accepted that there may have been many more.The incidence of solicitors entering individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs) is also thought to have increased sharply.

The Solicitors Complaints Bureau reports 'a steady trickle' of letters from insolvency practitioners, enquiring about the bureau's approach when an IVA is put in place.

Also, solicitors who enter IVAs and who wish to remain in practice must notify the Society when renewing a practising certificate.Evidence gleaned from several different sources shows that more solicitors have been getting into financial trouble.

Some 78 of the 516 inspections carried out by the SCB's investigation accountants last year were triggered solely because of evidence of financial trouble.

And the inspectors went on to find money difficulties in many of the remaining cases.Stephen James, chief investigations accountant, estimates that between 300 and 400 firms - about 4% of the total - have financial problems, and that even this may understate the case significantly.The solicitors' assistance scheme (SAS), established to help with a whole range of problems, has received an increasing number of calls from solicitors with money worries.

It says financial difficulties may be either the cause or a complicating factor in problems of other kinds referred to it.Greg Mullarkey, an insolvency practitioner with Chorley firm Leo B Wallwork & Co, takes referrals from the SAS.

His experience of arranging IVAs for accountants and others is that many ran into trouble by borrowing too much at the height of the 1980s property boom and found themselves unable to meet responsibilities when the economic downturn came.

He suspects it is a trap that many solicitors fell into.Mr Mullarkey also believes that solicitors are often slow to own up to financial difficulties, and by the time they seek help they may already be 'robbing Peter to pay Paul'.The advice of Chris Heaps, chairman of the SCB's adjudication and appeals committee, to solicitors in trouble is to 'face the music'.

He stresses that the 'primary objective of the committee must be to protect the public'.

But once the committee is reassured on the public protection point, it will not close a solicitor down.'We will not object to the employment of a solicitor on terms,' he says, pointing out that in allowing a solicitor to continue working, he or she has the best chance of paying off debts.In the case of bankruptcy, a solicitor will be liable to an intervention but the circumstances of each case will determine the action.

Intervention is more likely where a sole practitioner goes bankrupt.

Bankruptcy automatically suspends the practising certificate, but the solicitor may apply to have the suspension lifted.Where a bankruptcy has occurred in morally blameless circumstances - Lloyds losses, for example - the committee may agree to the employment of the bankrupt as an assistant in an approved practice.While intervention is also possible where a solicitor enters an IVA, the bureau's approach where possible is in tune with the purpose of IVAs - to keep the firm up and running.

Solicitors in IVAs therefore will not have their practising certificates suspended but may be subject to conditions including the submission of quarterly or six-monthly accounts reports if they are sole practitioners, or work under approved partn ership or employment arrangements if they are partners.Each case is dealt with on its own merits, and the public interest test is paramount.

An appeal against practising certificate conditions lies to the Master of the Rolls, who ruled earlier this year that 'innocent' solicitors who are involved in IVAs should be subject to some measure of control but that any conditions imposed should be carefully reviewed when the certificate comes up for renewal.-- Solicitors with financial worries can contact the solicitors' assistance scheme for free initial help from one of the scheme's members.

Call Susannah Lewis at the Law Society in confidence on 071-242 1222, ext 3314.-- Bankrupty operates immediately to suspend a practising certificate.

The solicitor becomes liable to an intervention by the Solicitors Complaints Bureau.-- The solicitor may apply to the Solicitors Complaints Bureau to have the suspension terminated.-- The bureau may refuse or grant the application or impose conditions.-- A solicitor entering an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) may also be liable to an intervention but it is more usual for a condition to be placed on the practising certificate.-- Examples of conditions include a requirement that a solicitor work in an approved partnership or employment, or the delivery of quarterly or six-monthly accountants' reports.-- A full insolvency fact sheet is available from the bureau's Regulation Unit, Victoria Court, 8 Dormer Place, Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire CV32 5AE.1994