Page 53 - BusinessWest August 17, 2020
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  Steve Weiss says he’s getting a steady volume of calls from business owners with questions about bankruptcy or liquidation.
 Law
Red Ink Bankruptcies Expected to Skyrocket in the Months to Come
SBy George O’Brien
teve Weiss says the wave of bankruptcies that he and others in his line of work are expecting certainly hasn’t reached shore yet, to use a phrase appropriate for this time of year.
“But you can definitely see it building out there
— it’s coming; you can see it rolling in,” said Weiss, who specializes in bankruptcies and workouts for the Springfield-based law firm Shatz, Schwartz & Fentin.
This wave is comprised of both corporate and consumer (personal) bankruptcies, and it will be large and hit with considerable force, he went on, adding that a number of factors are colliding that will make it so.
On the corporate side, while many companies have been able to hang on and survive the pandemic to date, they have done so thanks largely to govern- ment stimulus initiatives that are due to be exhaust- ed soon, leaving business owners and managers wondering how they will pay people and all their bills. And on the consumer side ... it’s a very similar story.
Indeed, unemployment benefits and stimulus checks have helped many make ends meet, but those checks are projected to end soon for large numbers of people, if they haven’t ended already.
“My phone is starting to ring more with business owners who are either unsure how they’re going to make it, or are sure they can’t — the virus has just clobbered their business,” said Weiss, who said his next phone call after the one with BusinessWest was with a business owner looking to talk about bank- ruptcy or perhaps liquidation.
Such calls are starting to come in with increasing frequency, said Mike Katz, a partner with the Spring- field-based firm Bacon Wilson and one of the region’s pre-eminent bankruptcy specialists. He used a dif- ferent, though similar, metaphor to describe what’s coming.
“I think the dam is about to break — we’re on the cusp of a tsunami of bankruptcies,” he said. “It hasn’t happened yet, but it’s going to happen.”
There have already been many, especially on the corporate side, he went on, noting that many large and famous names, many from the retail sector, have filed for Chapter 11 protection. That list, which con- tinues to grow, includes Lord & Taylor, J. Crew, Brooks Brothers, Gold’s Gym, Neiman Marcus, JCPenney, Hertz, 24-Hour Fitness, Chuck E. Cheese, California
 BusinessWest
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