As a bankruptcy attorney in Indiana who always has his ear to the ground and his eye on the post-bankruptcy rebuilding process, I count it a good day if I read news about new businesses moving here, plants opening or expanding, new technology being put to use. All of us like to hear this kind of good news about Indiana, but, for me, there’s an extra dimension, because I know that business growth means jobs. Jobs are a key factor for my clients as they re-construct their financial lives after bankruptcy. A bad day for me brings news of plant closings, business failures, and foreclosures. All of those things make it tougher for my bankruptcy clients to launch their fresh start.
If you go back to bankruptcy blogs I posted earlier this year, A Good News/Bad News Week In The Nation And In Indiana, and Some Indiana Good News, With More To Come, you’ll find a mixed bag of news about business, housing, and employment around the Hoosier state. Here are some of the highlights of just the past couple of weeks:
Genesis Manufacturing in Fortville, a plastic welding firm, is expanding its facility after landing a new contract to make sterile covers for surgery instruments. Genesis, by the way, creates the helmet pads for U.S. troops to protect against head injuries from land mines. In Lebanon, U.S. Cold Storage is adding a 400,000 warehouse in the Lebanon Business Park, and plans for a rail spur from the nearby CSX Railroad line are underfoot. U.S. Cold Storage would be the first tenant in a 250-acre plot Duke wants to develop. Meanwhile, in Noblesville, life sciences company Helmer, Inc. has moved into a new 72,000 square foot headquarters, adding 20 more employees and seeking more.
On the negative side, I was sad to read of the closing of the Frank E. Irish contracting company, whose president reported that tight credit and skyrocketing supply costs forced him to close, laying off 180 workers.
It seems as if, every week, there’s been a pull and tug, with bad news about Indiana business on the one hand, good news on the other. Here’s what I’ve concluded about all this: My individual bankruptcy clients will find themselves emerging from the legal filing process into a work climate that offers them many new opportunities. But they must be prepared to keep up their education and job skills, and they must be flexible. Small business owners emerging from the bankruptcy process can also find many opportunities for profit, but they, too, will need to keep up with changing markets and a changing workplace. In my work as an Indiana bankruptcy lawyer, I’ve put the emphasis on the “end of the story”. I try to do all I can so that each of my clients emerges from the bankruptcy process saying, “Today is the first day of the rest of my life”.