One of the benefits of practicing law is that there are plenty of new avenues to pursue if you feel like you’re able to take on more. If you’re looking for a way to expand your impact on your community, consider adding bankruptcy law to your practice. This area provides a lot of variety to your work and impacts a large portion of the population (there were 767,721 nonbusiness bankruptcies filed in 2017, according to US Courts data).
The following considerations show why adding bankruptcy law could be a wise choice for your practice.
Plenty of Variety
No bankruptcy case is the same—every debtor or individual has a unique situation. It’s thus up to you as the attorney to find a creative solution for clients. Bankruptcy law has plenty of variety, and therefore plenty of opportunities to get creative, from corporate, real estate, finance, tax, environmental, and more.
There are multiple chapters of bankruptcy for businesses and consumers. Most commonly, these are:
- Chapter 7: liquidation bankruptcy
- Chapter 11: reorganization bankruptcy
- Chapter 13: an individual with regular income adjusts debts via a pay-back plan
Even if you only take on Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy cases, for example, your work will still gain a lot of variety.
Satisfaction in Helping Others
Bankruptcy law is the perfect practice area for attorneys that have a strong desire to help others. You’re essentially giving clients a fresh start, helping them through one of the most emotional and challenging experiences they’ll ever face.
A survey from the American Psychological Association showed that 72 percent of Americans are stressed out about money. Debt takes an enormous emotional toll, and may also end up causing mental illness, according to Debt.org. By practicing bankruptcy law, you can help mitigate that stress and burden with the services you provide to get clients back on track.
Bankruptcy attorneys work with debtors directly, taking on a big part of the burden and solving issues more efficiently. This area of the law is a great way to connect with and assist a large portion of the population.
Not Just Paperwork
As a bankruptcy attorney, you can rest assured that your tasks won’t be solely paperwork-related. While you will have to list client assets and engage in other types of paperwork, filing and form-filling are not all you’ll do, by any means.
You’ll have frequent hearings, most likely multiple times per week for 341 hearings (the bankruptcy meeting of creditors). You’ll also litigate and work with trustees to get the best outcomes possible for your clients.
Finally, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to utilize your people skills, as you’ll be regularly working one-on-one with clients and fellow legal professionals. Building relationships is a major part of the bankruptcy attorney’s job.
Recession Hits? No Problem!
Out of all the industries hit hard when a recession hits, bankruptcy law isn’t one of them. Your practice, therefore, won’t suffer if this should happen down the road.
Put simply: you’ll never have to worry about job security if you decide to add bankruptcy law to your offerings.
Technology Can Help
Bankruptcy law may seem like an overwhelming task to take on, especially with all the complex regulations and paperwork involved. Luckily, there are software solutions out there to simplify your work, like NextChapter, which guides you through the forms.
NextChapter is the all in one bankruptcy solution to help you add bankruptcy law to your practice. Benefits you’ll receive include:
- Use of the “Turbo Tax” of bankruptcy law
- A web-based solution
- Auto-completing bankruptcy forms
- Compliance with all statutes and district requirements, which are built into NextChapter to ensure accurate filings
Bankruptcy law is a promising area to add to your practice, as it adds plenty of variety, brings you more satisfaction in helping those in need, gets you into the courtroom regularly, and provides job security.