Even in the turbulent days of last autumn when the financial pages of the newspapers seemed out of date by mid-morning the big issue was not how offshore firms would survive the immediate economic crisis, but what shape the equally inevitable regulatory backlash would take and how that would impact them in the medium term.
Of course, you have to get to the medium term first, but an offshore law firm with a reasonable degree of financial hygiene can do that, and so far all have. Their corporate services arms give a degree of recurring revenue and cash-flow that many professional services firms lack, and the counter-cyclical kickers really exist.
I imagine many were slightly surprised at the strength of the investment fund restructuring workflow as compared to the straight debt restructuring, but in a sense, it is merely a detail, and financial services-related and asset recovery litigation continues to power ahead. However, the medium term very quickly becomes the short term, and the regulatory backlash has well and truly arrived.
