One of the interesting changes in bankruptcy practice since the “Great Recession” is that bankruptcy clients now seem to find lawyers mostly by word of mouth. After the Dot-Com bubble burst, bankruptcy really began to lose its stigma. Even then, a large number of people who had been very successful found themselves filing for bankruptcy protection. However, when the housing bubble burst, and the whole economy collapsed, the attitude towards bankruptcy changed dramatically. A number of otherwise very successful people have sought bankruptcy protection. These very successful people include a number of people you have actually heard of.
I read with interest this article about NFL players filing for bankruptcy protection. It indicates that 16% of professional football players file bankruptcy. It even finds that there is no correlation between the amount of money they made in the NFL and the probability of filing. If 16% of professional football players can wind up in financial distress, then pretty much anyone can. Many of the players had successful NFL careers. Asthe attached article shows, Lawrence Taylor, Raghib “Rocket” Ismail and Mark Brunnell all filed for bankruptcy protection. It is not just football players either. Former Celtic Kenny Anderson and former Red Sox slugger Jack Clark have filed, as have Evander Holyfield, Scottie Pippen, Marian Jones and Allen Iverson. Recently, even rapper 50 Cent filed for bankruptcy protection. An article regarding 50 Cent’s filing can be found here. I think that bankruptcy has lost so much of its stigma because so many successful people have needed to file.