Re: Attorney going bankrupt

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The consequences should not be more dire than anything
you've already been through. I know of no states that will
revoke a license just because of a bankruptcy. The
exception would be if there were some shenanigans with your
trust account. The hardest part will be convincing the
trustee you should be in a Chap. 7 instead of a Chap. 13--
especially since the business seems to be turning profitable.

If you look around your community at solos with big fancy
offices and/or huge TV advertising budgets, you'll probably
find a bankruptcy somewhere in their past.

Just think of bankruptcy as another business planning tool.
Look at the airline industry and Donald Trump.

Give yourself the same advice you would give to a client
facing financial pressures.

On 1/21/05, John wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm a young attorney considering filing for bankruptcy. I
> got out of law school 4 years ago with high debt, and
> opened my practice. Bad luck finding referrals,
collection
> issues, etc... forced me to go through my savings from my
> prior profession more quickly than I thought. Now I have
> $60k of credit card debt, which is what I had been
> financing my firm with. Aside from commenting on the
> mistakes I've made (they are plenty, and I admit them),
can
> someone tell me how going bankrupt affects a lawyer and
his
> practice? I know I cannot discharge school debt. My
> practice is starting to turn a profit, but the debt level
> is so high that I cannot pay the rates while paying firm
> bills. I am a business/estate planning attorney. Will the
> state bar take my license? Will I lose all my clients?
> Will I be unable to get clients in the future? Will my
> referral sources dry up if they find out?
>
> Thanks
> John