Proving that its not all bad news out there, a host of firms have been raking it in with some large transactions to keep the WIP cracking.

Linklaters has scoffed more than £33m in fees for its first six months advising on the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Administrator PwC has revealed that the firm billed it £33.5m for advice given between September 2008 and March this year. PwC itself has generated fees of more than £77m. On the US front, information released there shows that between 15 September 2008 and 31 January 2009 Weil Gotshal & Manges, lead counsel for Lehman, has billed the bank $55m (£36.9m) out of a total so far of $84m. Exhale.

Back in the real-world…

Berwin Leighton Paisner is advising Leatherhead-based high Street chain Robert Dyas in its MBO and Camerons is advising Lloyds Banking Group and Allied Irish Bank.

Lovells have been advising Silver Base and Clifford Chance advised UBS on the IPO of the Chinese liquor and cigarettes distributor on the main Hong Kong Stock Exchange – the IPO raised approximately $133m.

And City firm, SJ Berwin, is advising CVC Capital Partners on its £3bn purchase of iShares, Barclays’ asset management business.

Some good news also for big US players Latham & Watkins and Jones Day – both have scooped roles on the Indian Government-sponsored auction for outsourcing firm Satyam Computer Services.

And cruising along nicely – Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal and Haynes and Boone, are all to provide advice to beleaguered US car manufactures and suppliers. The contracts awarded to the firms by the US Treasury Department are thought to be worth up to $25.8m (£17.6m).