Pictured above: Stephen Bottley

The last year has been a "scary time" for everyone in the banking industry, according to an award-winning Birmingham lawyer.

Stephen Bottley, recently named  UK Banking Lawyer of the Year in the Acquisition Finance Magazine Country Awards 2009 and a partner heading the leveraged and corporate lending team in the Birmingham office of DLA Piper, said it had been a case of "riding the waves" in difficult times.

But the good news is that there are just a few signs of new things happening in the market place, albeit the sector is by no means out of the woods yet.

Mr Bottley, who has ten years experience in corporate finance advising on deals, said it was nevertheless an "exciting" period to be working in the banking world.

There remained all sorts of pressures on banks - the Government was pressing them to lend but, given the criticism of their role in the credit crunch, they remained understandably wary and credit committee approval is as challenging as ever. 

Then there were the pressures brought on by existing borrowing where hard-hit customers were performing below expectations. The banks were keen to support such businesses, rather than pull the plug, wherever possible. That meant lots of restructurings - rescheduling of debt, debt for equity swaps and re-pricings.

And that was keeping law firms like DLA Piper busy.

"We have had to be creative and think laterally in these situations," said Mr Bottley.

"We have had to ride the waves and work through the commercial realities. These have been quite scary times, hard times, but we have stood shoulder to shoulder with our clients.

"Short term this has impacted on the profitability of our operation. However, we see it as an investment. You have to tailor your service to what is required. Businesses have been suffering and we have been no different.

"The last 12 months have been a huge challenge."

Because the Midlands specialised in mid-market deals it had escaped the most severe effects such as the "massive hit" on London. Nevertheless the scale of the job losses across the banking sector had been huge.

"However we remain optimistic and there is good news," said Mr Bottley.

"In Birmingham we are recruiting with newly qualified lawyer Peter Mitchell joining our 15-strong team in October, and we are beginning to see more new deals in comparison with the last six months. It is still too early to talk about a recovery but there are things happening in the market place.

"We offer a 'through the cycle' service and we will be there for our clients in both the heady times and the not so heady times."

Mr Bottley said it was important to emphasise how different banks were one from another.

There were different personalities at the top, they had different cultures, faced different issues and had different attitudes to risk in different sectors according to the profile of their balance sheet. Many overseas banks had retreated; others saw it as an opportunity to move into the market.

And, he emphasised, that while getting credit remained difficult there was still a wide choice of potential lenders.