In the May 29, 2012 Los Angeles Times, Tiffany Hsu reported:

Storied law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf – which once advised the Los Angeles Dodgers on their restructuring – is itself filing for Chapter 11 protection as it prepares to liquidate.

On April 25, 2012, Joe Palazzolo of The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog reported:

Judge Otis Wright II . . . , a George W. Bush appointee who was confirmed in 2007, has filed for personal bankruptcy, a rare thing for a federal judge.  A trustee plans to put Wright’s house in Rancho Palos Verdes in Los Angeles County on the market, in a bid to generate funds for creditors, according to documents filed recently in Central California bankruptcy court, which sits about a half mile away from Wright’s courthouse.  The asking price: about $1.2 million.  Judge Wright listed assets of $833,426 and liabilities of $895,292 at the time of his Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing late last year.  Between his home and his Mini Cooper, Wright said in the filing he owed about $800,000.  He and his wife, Evelyn, a self-employed social worker, had accumulated more than $70,000 in credit card debt, including $12,740 on a Nordstrom card, according to the filing.

Bankruptcy:  it’s not just for the average guy anymore.  And it’s never been just for the average guy.  An amazing number of bankruptcies have been filed by celebrities and power players.

Pace George Carlin’s witticism, those of you old enough to remember the sixties and seventies will remember John Connally, about whom the New York Times reported on August 1, 1987:

John B. Connally, a former United States Treasury Secretary and Democratic Governor of Texas who later sought the Republican Presidential nomination, filed a bankruptcy petition today, citing problems brought on by a depressed Texas real estate market. . . . Mr. Connally served three terms as Governor of Texas and was Treasury Secretary under President Nixon and Secretary of the Navy under President Kennedy.

And here’s what Forbes magazine says about Donald Trump:

Donald Trump has filed for corporate bankruptcy four times, in 1991, 1992, 2004 and 2009.  All of these bankruptcies were connected to over-leveraged casino and hotel properties in Atlantic City, all of which are now operated under the banner of Trump Entertainment Resorts.

Quiz question of the day:  How does a casino – the type of business that practically has a license to print money – end up in bankruptcy?  Answer:  It has Donald Trump running it.  So what does that say about his business acumen?

And on February 24, 2010, the Herald Tribune reported:

Dick Smothers may be renowned for his humor, but there is nothing funny about his current financial situation.  The 71-year-old comedic actor filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Tampa earlier this month, listing $2 million in assets and $2.8 million in debts on homes he and his ex-wife, Denby Smothers, own on Bird Key and Golden Gate Point.  Smothers is the younger brother in a two-man comedy team. The brothers hosted the “Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” on CBS in the 1960s, and still perform together in concert halls across the country.

Thus, anybody who’s anybody files for bankruptcy protection sometime in their life.  If it’s your time, contact a superlative bankruptcy attorney to discuss your options.