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The downfall of Lehman Brothers nearly a year ago has triggered a stream of corporate-restructuring business for Wall Street, an irony that isn't lost on Mark Shapiro.

As head of the Lehman's restructuring business, it was Shapiro who helped orchestrate Lehman's North American operations sale to Barclays Capital, a unit of Barclays PLC (BCS). "And, it's not often a restructuring team gets called on to restructure its firm," he said.

Shapiro, now leading Barclays restructuring practice, has seen revenue from that business more than double in the year since Lehman imploded. Similar results are being felt throughout Wall Street, helping firms like Lazard Ltd. (LAZ), Blackstone Group (BX), Miller Buckfire, Greenhill & Co. (GHL) and Evercore Partners Inc. (EVR).

"This was the phoenix that grew out of the ashes," Shapiro said in an interview. "It led to a monumental number of restructurings in the aftermath of Lehman because of the financial dislocation that took place across a number of industries."

Indeed, major companies like CIT Group Inc. (CIT), Tropicana Entertainment and Tribune Co. (TRBCQ) have restructured. And more companies are expected to follow. Through the middle of July, 179 companies defaulted on debt worth roughly $424 billion, up from 126 issuers defaulting on $432 billion of debt last year, according to Standard & Poor's.

This wave of defaults is in stark contrast to 2007, before the financial crisis began, when there were only 22 defaults globally.

Barry Ridings, vice chairman of U.S. investment banking and co-head of global restructuring at Lazard, said the current restructuring cycle is different than in the past. For example, the dot-com bust focused mostly on technology companies - while the current financial crisis is affecting multiple industries.

"This cycle is driven by over-leverage, over-value and consumer sentiment," Ridings said. "Everything is connected, and there's a trickle-down effect."

Lazard, one of the major players in the industry, has advised on Extended Stay Hotels and Nortel Networks Corp. (NT).

The restructuring business tends to be dominated by more independent financial firms who are able to avoid conflicts of interest. Most large Wall Street banks sit on the sidelines during restructuring cycles because they underwrote securities or lent money to the troubled companies, preventing them from serving as an adviser in any restructuring assignment.

This is not to say that firms such as Morgan Stanley (MS) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) don't ever get a piece of the pie, but most of the time their role is to help clients with financing, such as a debtor-in-possession loan or exit financing.

Barclays Capital has been able to sidestep many of these conflicts because it did not inherit Lehman's old lending book. That advantage will likely change over the years and, as the bank starts to lend more, conflicts will inherently arise.

While the high-yield market pickup the past few months has helped some companies avoid bankruptcy, Shapiro believes Barclays and others will profit from restructuring for the next several years.

Shapiro's team may have an edge when bringing in new clients given their experience in the last year. "We've had a few pitches where we've said, 'We can assure you that we're the only financial advisors you're going to meet that actually have empathy for what you're going through because we've personally gone through it ourselves'."

-By Jessica Papini, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2172; jessica.papini@dowjones.com