The Four Steps of Retirement Succession

1
Retirement Succession Starts with Strategic Planning

A law firm creating a retirement succession program begins by making these and other key decisions:

• Whether to designate a management-level partner or committee to train and guide retiring partners through planning and executing client transitions.
• How to motivate retiring partners to invest the time and effort needed for the program to succeed, including whether to compensate them and how to fund this investment.
• Whether to have a mandatory retirement age for partners, and whether to permit waiver of this requirement where it benefits the firm.
• Whether to offer retirement counseling services to help retiring partners plan for and adjust to life after law practice.

2
Create A Formal Succession Program

A succession program is a codification of what the firm expects of retiring partners as they transition their clients to successors.

It includes resources to help them meet the emotional challenges of retirement in a holistic way, such as professional coaching and support as they forge new identities detached from the practice of law.

An effective program provides retiring partners with:

• Step-by-step guidance for how to prepare a detailed transition plan for every client
• How to perform each transition task, how to manage younger partners slated as successors
• How to steer clients into new working relationships with them.

Enshrined in every good succession program will be a recognition of retiring partners’ service and a “thank you” for their contributions to the firm.

3
Create Succession Guidelines

A firm’s Retirement Succession Guidelines provide a roadmap for a retiring partner on how to plan and execute individual client transition plans.

They include templates and step-by-step instructions for preparing:

• A customized transition plan for each client describing how the retiring partner will implement transition of ongoing work responsibilities and leadership roles to successor partners.
• A transition proposal for the retiring partner to submit to each client proposing and promoting successor partners, suggesting a transition timeline and key milestones, and the precise steps the transition team will take to effectuate the transition of client responsibilities.
• Progress reports the retiring partner will submit to the Retirement Succession Committee (or firm representative responsible for succession procedures) describing tasks completed and still to be completed during the transition period.
• A report from the Retirement Succession Committee (or firm representative responsible for succession procedures) to the partnership or firm management describing and tracking the performance of each class of retiring partners, and return on the firm’s investment in their client transitions.

4
Assess, Improve, Repeat

Constantly assess and improve by:

• Evaluating program effectiveness, to determine how well retiring partners are trained, coached and supported through the retirement process.
• Tracking return on the firm’s investment in succession, monitoring program performance and making adjustments as client retention trends develop, and where additional resources may be needed.
• Facilitation of discussion of how well the program is functioning and areas for improvement.