Professional Services Accounting ARTICLE -
Don’t Let Partners’ Relationships Retire With Them

Target Audience: Consulting Services, Law Firm Professionals, Lawyers, Law Firm Associates

Partners build valuable relationships during the course of their careers — relationships with clients, businesses, community organizations and many other influential contacts. But when a partner retires, those relationships often retire with him or her and are forever lost to the firm.

Fortunately, this doesn’t have to be the case. With some planning — and cooperation from the departing lawyer — you can maintain vital clients, contacts and resources after a partner leaves.

Have a transition plan

It can take several years to fully transition a partner’s practice. With an institutional client, such as a major corporation or bank where the work comes from many internal sources, it can take up to ten years. That’s why it’s essential to create a transition plan.

To begin, review client rosters to determine which ones may soon need transitioning because of a partner’s imminent retirement. Checking client rosters regularly will give you a “heads up” regarding clients that will need to be transitioned sooner rather than later.

Next, determine the best successor within the firm for each client. Naturally, the client must feel comfortable with the new lawyer, so consider personality as well as legal knowledge and experience when determining who can best serve the client.

Finally, incorporate the lawyer-successor into the client relationship as soon as possible. He or she should start by attending client meetings with the retiring partner and managing the day-to-day communications, gradually taking over primary responsibility for the client while the retiring partner serves as an advisor. Clients should also be introduced to other lawyers within the firm to ensure that they become a firm client as opposed to a client of the lawyers handling their matters.

It takes time to develop the kind of trust and confidence that’s necessary in a lawyer-client relationship, so make sure the client is acquainted with the successor both professionally and socially.

Maintain influential ties

It’s worthwhile to maintain participation in exclusive memberships, clubs and other networking groups that the retiring partner belonged to. This is already cultivated and fertile ground for growing valuable relationships. For example, the retiring partner may be able to use his or her influence to have an exclusive club membership extended to a colleague.

The retiring partner may also be able to use his or her “pull” to get a colleague invited to important meetings, conferences and other functions where, by association, there may be a greater chance that the colleague is able to quickly and easily step into the retiring partner’s role.

If possible, ask the retiring partner to recommend the successor be nominated to a key position within an organization or introduce him or her to a key contact, such as the executive director or board chair.

Stay connected with other resources
In addition to acquiring major clients, exclusive memberships and prominent leadership positions, retiring partners will have also established a number of other contacts and resources along the way — those that may have helped advance his or her career and contributed to your firm’s success. You can build on several such contacts and resources by:

Capitalizing on referral sources

Find out if there are valuable sources from which the retiring partner may have consistently received quality work and then select the appropriate successor to continue that relationship. Ask the retiring partner to be involved with transitioning the relationship to help boost the referral contact’s confidence in continuing to refer work to the firm. It’s then up to the successor to nurture the relationship and learn about the referral contact’s interests and concerns.

Staying in touch with publishers

Articles published in legal journals and other publications lend credibility and visibility to both the lawyer and the firm. The departing partner’s relationships with editors should be kept within the firm if possible. Determine which of your lawyers has the skill, talent and willingness to maintain and even expand upon these publishing opportunities.

Keeping connected with media resources

If the departing partner provided expert legal analysis and quotes for stories, choosing the appropriate successor to serve in this capacity is essential to retaining the relationship. Moreover, this type of publicity for your firm is invaluable.

Taking advantage of speaking and teaching engagements

If the retiring partner is recognized as a good speaker, his or her reputation and credibility will go a long way when recommending the appropriate successor for future speaking and teaching opportunities. Engagements that involve speaking at corporate workshops or bar association meetings or serving on panel discussions at conferences help raise awareness of your firm and its services.

Have ample lead time

Successfully transitioning a retiring partner’s key relationships, contacts and other resources — all of which are necessary to your firm’s growth and survival — requires ample lead time and meticulous planning. Otherwise, you may miss the opportunity to build on the partner’s years of hard work and success. No firm can afford to lose the valuable resources that may retire when a partner does.

How to encourage information sharing

To ease the transfer of information and transition of clients, consider ways to encourage retiring partners to be forthcoming about information.

One way to reward efforts is to address it in your compensation plan. Rather than structuring compensation solely on billings, you can structure it to give retiring partners incentive to transfer files and contacts, share vital information and pass down the practice to succeeding lawyers.

In addition to the capital buyout that many firms offer retiring partners, you can include other financial incentives, such as residual profit sharing, a retirement allowance or pension, and some provisions for postretirement health and life insurance. Also, consider making office space and support staff available to retiring partners, offering consulting work or allowing them to work part-time, and covering membership and professional association dues.

Keeping retiring partners involved in the firm’s business and social events will make them feel appreciated and connected, particularly if they’re having difficulty transitioning into retirement. Assisting retiring partners with the transition will help them to be more forthcoming with essential information.

Find out how our expertise in professional services accounting can add value to your business. Email us or call us at 1 (888) 875-9770.

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