After three years in which a prolonged institutional slump has failed to deliver the expected work for the legal profession's resident vultures, insolvency lawyers are finally sharpening their talons in anticipation of a busy 2006.

With the New Year hangovers barely fading, rumours are already rife that the British high street is to soon see a major bankruptcy after recent weeks that have seen Kookai, Unwins, MVC and Golden Wonder file for insolvency.

Securing one of its most high-profile insolvency instructions for years, Eversheds partner Louise Pheasant is advising corporate restructuring specialist Kroll, which was this week appointed as administrator for Golden Wonder. Denton Wilde Sapte partner Martin Kitchen is advising the company.

Ashurst insolvency chief Nick Angel is leading a team for Kookai, trading as Adjustbetter, which went into administration last week.

Angel, who was called in to advise the company before Christmas on its trading obligations, was instructed by Deloitte last week when the company went into administration.

Angel told Legal Week that the past two months have seen a sharp increase in the number of enquiries from companies concerned that they could be trading while insolvent.

DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary's Simon Neilson-Clark is leading two teams acting for Unwins administrators KPMG and MVC administrators Kroll, which appointed the firm in December.

Unwins, an off-licence chain with around 350 stores, last month sold 200 stores to Thresher Group, advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

Ironically, the travails on the high street come as most major law firms are benefiting from a dramatic upturn in transactional work.

Neilson-Clark commented: "The UK economy is slowing down. While there is unlikely to be anything like a recession, the leisure and retail sectors have been hit and it is quite possible the real estate sector is next."

The expectation of increasing work from insolvency practices, which, in contrast with US advisers, largely missed out on a wave of major restructurings during the lean years of 2002 and 2003, is backed up by the latest industry figures.

Statistics issued by the Department for Constitutional Affairs for the third quarter of 2005, show that winding up, creditors and debtors petitions were up respectively by 17%, 28% and 36% compared with the same period in 2004.

Peter Sargent, a fellow of business recovery group R3, told Legal Week: "The insolvency profession is going to have a busy 12 months."