A year ago, amid the near-meltdown in the financial system, some senior bankers at Wall Street securities firms quit their jobs. They weren’t laid off or pushed. They simply decided that with the markets in the doldrums and regulation around the corner it simply wasn’t worth their while to stay, Anita Raghavan of Forbes reported.

Now a few are trickling back to Wall Street–a signal that the financial services industry, seen as a wasteland just a year ago, is regaining its luster. Among the notable returnees are Lewis Steinberg who left UBS in May to join the British law firm Linklaters as co-head of its American operation and head of its United States tax practice.

When he quit the Swiss bank, Mr. Steinberg was blunt about the reasons for his departure. “Four or five years ago, I felt a bank was an environment [in which] I could provide skills in an efficient way for my clients, and, to be frank, be well compensated for it,” Mr. Steinberg told Am Law Daily. “Now it’s no longer a friendly environment to do it. And I can actually give my clients better service [at a law firm]… I can be adequately compensated and perhaps better compensated.”