It is striking how much more susceptible US firms are to sudden collapse than their rivals across the pond. For Brobeck Phleger & Harrison, Altheimer & Gray, Pennie & Edmonds and Coudert Brothers read, er, DJ Freeman. There are several reasons for this. The legal market is bigger in the US, so there are more places for disgruntled partners to go, clients are more portable in the States and contracts that prevent key personnel from upping sticks are few and far between.

If a US firm had landed itself in the position Hammonds found itself in early last year – dodgy finances, plunging profits and waves of defections – it would have been curtains. As it is, Hammonds has reached a position where it can be cautiously optimistic about the future.

An emergency 14-month lock-in agreed by the equity partners last year appears to have bought managing partner Peter Crossley the necessary time needed to stabilise the firm. In that period, the firm's financial systems have been overhauled, there has been a swingeing round of job cuts and a simplified management structure with the necessary checks and balances has been introduced. All the while, the partnership has been kept in the loop, which must be a fairly novel experience.

Next week, the firm reaches a crucial staging post in its recovery plan as it unveils its financial results at the same time as the lock-in expires. Crossley is sufficiently bullish to state publicly that there is no need for the lock-in to be renewed. The reality is that such a drastic measure could only ever have been deployed once. Nevertheless, it is likely that the firm will report a considerable rebound from last year's dreadful set of numbers, lending credence to the views of many that the firm's predicament disguised a fundamentally sound business. Indeed, the firm is sticking to the core elements of its existing strategy. It remains committed to its European network of offices and acknowledges that it must make yet another attempt to crack London.

If all goes to plan, phase two of the firm's revival will see it return to its entrepreneurial, business-winning ways. The partners will, no doubt, be spurred on by the knowledge that no matter how kind the UK market is to firms when they initially run in to trouble, survival can just as easily lead to slow decline as rapid revival.