Corporate bankruptcy is a cyclical practice area. During certain brief periods of time, like during the Financial Crisis, bankruptcy lawyers feast on work and many lawyers from other practices rebrand themselves as bankruptcy lawyers. During other longer periods of time, the opposite is often true: bankruptcy lawyers have to start doing more commercial litigation or transactional work to stay busy.

When the COVID-19 pandemic took root, many believed, myself included, that we were in for another wave of Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases. And there were quite a few filings in 2020, particularly among retail and energy companies, but nothing like what we saw at the height of the Financial Crisis. However, as rapidly as the wave formed, it receded in 2021.