One bankruptcy attorney had more clients in the first half of 2025 than any year since he opened his firm.
He should have felt good about that.
He didn't.
The filings were up. The phone was ringing.
But he'd taken on too many small cases at rates he'd set three years ago.
His intake process was a mess — people falling through the cracks, consultations not converting, staff overwhelmed.
He was running as hard as he ever had and somehow still felt behind.
July 1st he sat down with a legal pad.
He wrote down what he'd actually billed in the first six months versus what walked in the door.
The gap was significant.
He'd left real money on the table. Not because the clients weren't there. They were there.
Filings in his district were up nearly 14% year over year.
Small business Subchapter V cases flooding in from truckers, restaurant owners, contractors getting crushed by tariff costs they couldn't pass on.
But he was still priced like it was 2023.
He hadn’t updated his intake process.
He was still the only person who could do the initial consult.
He wrote down three things he was going to change before September.
Raise his rates on new Subchapter V cases.
Hire someone to run first consultations.
Stop taking cases that didn't fit the practice he actually wanted to build.
By December his case volume was slightly lower.
His revenue was up 40%.
More on how he got there soon.
-The Bankruptcy Brief
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