Lawyers love to wax lyrical about the competitiveness of the legal market, but there is little doubt that private equity advisers working out of the regions are facing a challenging environment.

Fresh evidence that the much-heralded surge at the top end of the buy-out market is not translating into mid-market work came from recent research by Lloyds Development Capital (LDC), which showed that deals in the £5m-£100m range last year dipped in volume by 20%.