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Law firms prepare for expected jump in bankruptcies triggered by coronavirus

Bankruptcy filings tend to be a lagging indicator of economic health as business owners spend cash and look for other ways to stay afloat

WASHINGTON—The nation’s bankruptcy industry is bracing for a wave of business collapses triggered by the coronavirus pandemic as its ranks have been thinned by a decade of economic growth.

The slowed pace of corporate chapter 11 bankruptcy filings—which crested in 2009 with 13,700 cases and has fallen to about half that amount in recent years—has led restructuring firms to shed bankruptcy lawyers and advisers.

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