All law firm partners should have a succession plan to prepare their firm for their eventual retirement. A succession plan benefits the attorney that is retiring, the firm partners, associate attorneys, law firm staff, and clients.
Roy S. Ginsburg, a law firm consultant, suggests in his article for Attorney at Work that firms consider hiring an outside company to work on succession plans so no one feels like any one individual's vested interest is impacting the plan.
Succession plans are important strategic plans that determine what will happen with issues like clients, cases, law firm ownership, future firm leaders, etc. Ginsburg says that the idea of creating a succession plan should typically be brought up by the managing partners or management committee.
According to Ginsburg, time and fear can cause law firms and their partners to put off succession planning. Planning for the future is an essential part of law firm management.
For more tips on succession planning, click here to watch our video interview with Joseph Fournier of Fournier Legal Services.