Perhaps the most striking move has come from Allen & Overy (A&O), which has put in place a number of measures to encourage staff to move to busier areas or locations. Managing partner David Morley says: "It is about making sure we are flexible to adapt to market conditions and client needs. We have invested time in looking at how we can build up practices and overcome concerns, giving training so it is less scary. Giving people a new opportunity they can be excited about is also one of the objectives."

Elsewhere, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is launching a similar-looking project, regrouping its lawyers and uniting common practice areas (although it insists for different reasons to A&O), while Clifford Chance last year overhauled practice groups to bring sub-teams together in larger umbrella groups. In the latter's case there will be more lawyers working across specialist teams.

You could be forgiven for thinking the big four are starting to rediscover the beauty of the generalism championed by Slaughter and May, which argues, with some justification, that it promotes more rounded lawyers with better critical judgement.

One reason for this revival of more generalist corporate lawyers after the 20-year push towards specialisation is blindingly obvious: the dramatic shift in corporate activity in the wake of four months of turmoil in the credit markets. This pressure has been heightened as its impact has been the most pronounced in the areas of finance that are highly prone to specialisation, many lawyers would have argued excessively so even before the credit squeeze. A related trend has been the shift in work over the last six months from London towards key emerging markets.

Hopefully more flexible than Cadwalader

Career flexibility clearly cannot entirely head off the risk of cuts in a prolonged downturn but, as the recent redundancies at the hyper-specialised Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft suggest, generalism can do quite a lot to mitigate market conditions.

Such moves also reflect firms' individual agendas. A&O, having for years had problems with inter-team communication, is presumably hoping to utilise a more flexible approach to practice development. Freshfields, lacking the command-and-control mentality of its peers, has had trouble prodding its lawyers to transfer to busy foreign offices - a shortcoming it clearly intends to put right now.

Of course, tilting back towards a generalist approach can only take you so far, especially when dealing with senior associates and partners; while broadening someone's practice within a related discipline can work, a total change of practice usually doesn't. And the remaining magic circle member, Linklaters, looks unlikely to move in a similar direction. Private equity partner Charlie Jacobs argues: "It is all very well from the firm's point of view, but is the client being given a reduction in fees while muggins takes his time crawling up the learning curve?"

But, for the time being at least, the consensus is moving towards bringing in more flexibility after years of rigid specialisation.

As Freshfields litigation head Ian Terry says: "A reaction to the market is different from a move towards a generalist culture. We are not going to move away from being specialised, but that is very different from being a one-trick pony.

Perhaps the most striking move has come from Allen & Overy (A&O), which has put in place a number of measures to encourage staff to move to busier areas or locations. Managing partner David Morley says: "It is about making sure we are flexible to adapt to market conditions and client needs. We have invested time in looking at how we can build up practices and overcome concerns, giving training so it is less scary. Giving people a new opportunity they can be excited about is also one of the objectives."

Elsewhere, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is launching a similar-looking project, regrouping its lawyers and uniting common practice areas (although it insists for different reasons to A&O), while Clifford Chance last year overhauled practice groups to bring sub-teams together in larger umbrella groups. In the latter's case there will be more lawyers working across specialist teams.

You could be forgiven for thinking the big four are starting to rediscover the beauty of the generalism championed by Slaughter and May, which argues, with some justification, that it promotes more rounded lawyers with better critical judgement.

One reason for this revival of more generalist corporate lawyers after the 20-year push towards specialisation is blindingly obvious: the dramatic shift in corporate activity in the wake of four months of turmoil in the credit markets. This pressure has been heightened as its impact has been the most pronounced in the areas of finance that are highly prone to specialisation, many lawyers would have argued excessively so even before the credit squeeze. A related trend has been the shift in work over the last six months from London towards key emerging markets.

Hopefully more flexible than Cadwalader

Career flexibility clearly cannot entirely head off the risk of cuts in a prolonged downturn but, as the recent redundancies at the hyper-specialised Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft suggest, generalism can do quite a lot to mitigate market conditions.

Such moves also reflect firms' individual agendas. A&O, having for years had problems with inter-team communication, is presumably hoping to utilise a more flexible approach to practice development. Freshfields, lacking the command-and-control mentality of its peers, has had trouble prodding its lawyers to transfer to busy foreign offices - a shortcoming it clearly intends to put right now.

Of course, tilting back towards a generalist approach can only take you so far, especially when dealing with senior associates and partners; while broadening someone's practice within a related discipline can work, a total change of practice usually doesn't. And the remaining magic circle member, Linklaters, looks unlikely to move in a similar direction. Private equity partner Charlie Jacobs argues: "It is all very well from the firm's point of view, but is the client being given a reduction in fees while muggins takes his time crawling up the learning curve?"

But, for the time being at least, the consensus is moving towards bringing in more flexibility after years of rigid specialisation.

As Freshfields litigation head Ian Terry says: "A reaction to the market is different from a move towards a generalist culture. We are not going to move away from being specialised, but that is very different from being a one-trick pony.