Granted, initiatives and enthusiasm have come from within the Bench and the Law Minister has placed judicial reform right at the top of his agenda (naturally far above liberalisation naturally) but as one commenter argues, change will have to come from action by practitioners.

In the meantime, discussion on the subject can only be healthy so have your say on-line, over water coolers and in Bar common rooms and chambers.

Law firms are happy to get back on track of their pre-boom trajectory undeterred by the Bar - or perhaps assisted by it.

Private equity activity is increasing and many firms are quick in reviving their mothballed PE relationships and making new ones.

Desai & Diwanji, DSK Legal and Wadia Ghandy have led on a mega-investment by Bessemer, Sequoia and Citi Ventures in the power sector and SN Gupta and a Hyderabad start-up have acted on an overseas hotel investment.

Projects is an area that almost everyone remains happy to bet on. And niche boutique firm India Law Services, which has managed to muscle between bigger players on the lender side, has recruited a FoxMandal partner for its fledgling Delhi office, hoping to expand further.

Finally, despite the last two weeks' correction, capital markets teams continue happily filing IPO prospectuses and this year's IPO league table is taking new shapes and making space for new entrants and niche players.

For law students hoping to go to law firms, our careers counsel column this week calls the end of the downturn and answers whether this is a continuing recruitment boom or whether law firms are just making up for appetites they lost during the bust.

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