Legal Week offers light-hearted inspiration for the gloomy deal lawyer as summer arrives

For a market in a deal slump there seem to be a lot of deals happening at the moment. Recent weeks have sizeable bids for companies as varied as International Power, Ontex, Chloride, SSL and the UK assets of EDF, not to mention the merger between PartyGaming and bwin Interactive Entertainment last week. For seasoned deal professionals the question must be whether the cycle is finally beginning to turn after a two-year slump.