Capone, it's hard to pick out trends from a single example. The lawyer you know appears to have done things correctly, but was this guy in sole practice or in a very small firm? If so, well done.

But what Reg said has the ring of truth. Even experienced lawyers may run into serious health issues they've never had to deal with before, and that's more likely to happen the older they are. If you add the lack of support in a sole practice the likelihood of things going off the rails increases significantly.