<p>Nicole Astra: Hello, and thank you for joining Talking Cities Aurora. I'm your host, Nicole Astra.</p> <p>Nicole Astra: Filing for bankruptcy is a decision many people want to avoid. However, these last 18 months have left many business owners with no other option. So who can you turn to, to help guide you during this difficult decision? Joining me today is bankruptcy attorney and CPA, Eric Zelazny. Eric, thank you for joining us.</p> <p>Eric Zelazny: It's my pleasure to be here.</p> <p>Nicole Astra: What is one piece of advice that you would give a business owner who's facing bankruptcy?</p> <p>Eric Zelazny: The one piece of advice I would give them, and I feel very strongly about this, is go see a bankruptcy attorney the minute you are experiencing financial difficulty. I offer a free consultation. Not all attorneys do. Just go see a lawyer, bring your taxes and they will walk you through your best options. I have some clients I see, I say, "I can't help you now. Come see me in six months." I have some clients I see, I tell them, "I can't help you until a year from now for certain reasons, legal reasons, strategic reasons." Others, I tell, "You need to file yesterday. So let's talk. If you hire me or anyone else, you need to move on this and move quickly."</p> <p>Nicole Astra: I can only imagine the process of bankruptcy alone, but finding an attorney is very daunting when you're in this position and also a really personal choice. What would you say distinguishes you from other attorneys? Why hire you?</p> <p>Eric Zelazny: Well, first of all, my background. I'm a CPA as well as an attorney. I worked for KPMG, the world's largest accounting consulting firm before law school. I went to Washington University in St. Louis, a very good law school, but that's not why you should hire me. You should hire me because I enjoy doing this. I genuinely enjoy helping business owners. I'm a business owner. I have been for years. I understand the problems. I understand the stress. So you have two jobs, actually taking care of your clients and then secondly, running the business, taking care of payroll and all those other things. So it's a stressful, stressful existence. It really is. And I enjoy helping take some of that stress away, putting it on my shoulders. And I really enjoy sitting down with these clients and working through their problems. I enjoy my work.</p> <p>Nicole Astra: What about your qualifications? Do you consider yourself an expert?</p> <p>Eric Zelazny: I'll tell you why I feel very competent and I'm confident that I can help my clients. Number one, I've lectured many times before the bar association. In fact, I've received many hours of continuing legal education for these lectures. And usually, I'm the last guy there because the people in the audience have so many questions for me, they have to drag me off the stage so they can finish the whole presentation for the other speakers.</p> <p>Eric Zelazny: Number two is that I have been an expert witness. I've been sworn in as an expert witness at trials to testify on behalf of certain litigants on bankruptcy issues. And that's a pretty rare qualification for a bankruptcy attorney.</p> <p>Eric Zelazny: Number three, I've been doing this 25 years. I've represented MLB owners, doctors, lawyers, real estate developers, you name it. I've been doing this a long time and I'm very competent and confident in my abilities.</p>