Grant Thornton, the leading second-tier accounting firm, has expanded its corporate finance team in a vote of confidence in the prospects for the Scottish mergers and acquisitions market.

Despite growing fears that the global credit crunch will result in a marked slowdown in Scotland, Grant Thornton is gearing up to support an increase in activity in the privately-owned firms on which it has focused.

The company, which ranks fifth in fee income in the UK behind the so-called "Big Four", has added two senior specialists to its Scottish team. Scott Langlands has joined from brokerage Oriel Securities while David Sloan transferred from GT's audit function.

Significantly, both joined from operations based in London, where the turmoil in global capital markets is having a dramatic impact, suggesting they see better prospects north of the border.

Grant Thornton has also announced a number of promotions within the corporate finance department, including the elevation of director David Cockburn to partner level.

Cockburn, who joined Grant Thornton from PriceWaterhouseCoopers in 2005, will join the partnership on Friday.

His promotion follows a record run for the corporate finance department, which has trebled fee income in the last three years.

Cockburn confirmed there had been no sign of a let-up over the last year, during which the firm was lead adviser on a range of significant transactions involving Scottish firms. These included the £3.5m flotation of cash machine specialist i-design on the Alternative Investment Market and the management buy-out of Innis & Gunn brewing from William Grant & Sons.

Cockburn said the team had a strong pipeline of deals, helped by its focus on the mid-market.

As the kind of mega deals targeted by London players rely on lots of bank debt, these have become increasingly hard to fund as banks draw in their horns. However, the mid-market is much less affected as deals tend to be less risky and require less debt.

Well-funded companies could benefit from the fact that vendors may have to trim their pricing expectations. Competition from private equity firms that rely on debt may be less fierce.

Cockburn's comments echo the optimistic view of the prospects for Scottish players which has been expressed by members of the Scottish advisory community since the onset of the credit crunch last summer.

Separately, Brodies, a prominent law firm which only practises in Scotland, reported that gross profits jumped 30% to £15m in the year to April. Turnover increased 23% to £37m.