Bankruptcy is a Growth Area for Law Firms
When I teach lawyers how to sell, I advise them to ask questions to discover client "pain." In this recession, there is an ocean of pain for businesses and individuals that can't pay their landlords, have run up debt so high it can't be paid off and revenue has dropped drastically.
Among the companies that filed a petition in bankruptcy in 2008 included Tribune Co., Bally Total Fitness, Tweeter electronics, Circuit City, Mervyn’s, Bennigan's & Steak & Ale, Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual bank, Linens 'n Things, Frontier Airlines and Sharper Image.
Bankruptcy filings in the U.S. rose to 91,355 for the month of November 2008, cresting at more than 1 million filed in 2008, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
If there was ever a time for lawyers to brush up on Chapters 7 and 11 of the bankruptcy code, this is it.
As Mergers and Other Work Dry Up, Bankruptcy Becomes Lawyers’ Oasis is a telling headline in the January 24, 2009 New York Times. There are more than a million potential clients for small firms serving consumers and mega-firms representing giant corporations.
"At some firms, seasoned bankruptcy partners hold seminars and host brown bag lunches to introduce Chapter 11 proceedings to associates more accustomed to carefully planned mergers than to corporate fire sales. Some firms have poached bankruptcy experts from rivals in a bid to bolster business and to bring in a source of knowledge for lawyers new to dark times," quoth the Times.
“The people who are most successful are the counselors, who know a little bit about everything,” Said Kenneth A. Lefkowitz, a partner at Hughes Hubbard & Reed in New York, told the Times.
