Many small and midsize law firms have not identified a successor or developed a formal succession plan. That isn’t because partners don’t care what happens to the practice. It’s because they are busy building it. Business development, client work, and firm management fill every available hour, and the question of what happens after a founding partner steps away keeps sliding to next quarter, then next year, then the year after that.
Meanwhile, the clock keeps running.
The Question Most Partners Never Ask Themselves
“It’s never easy to think about how an unforeseen event can impact the practice. Anticipating the future is challenging for most of us. Ask yourself, ‘when do you plan to leave?'” says Shari Davidson, President of On Balance Search.
It’s a simple question. Most partners can’t answer it with a date, a plan, or a name. Some have a vague target in mind, usually “in a few years.” Others have never considered it, because the practice is thriving and stepping away feels like a problem for some future version of themselves.
Succession is not really a retirement question. It’s a continuity question. An unexpected illness, a family emergency, or a sudden change in circumstances can force the issue long before anyone intended to address it. A partner who hasn’t answered “when do you plan to leave?” has left that answer to chance.
The Numbers Behind the Problem
The legal profession is older than the workforce it serves. According to the American Bar Association’s Profile of the Legal Profession, more than 13 percent of lawyers, roughly one in eight, are 65 or older, compared with about 7 percent of all U.S. workers. The median age for lawyers was 46 in 2023, nearly four years older than the median for the workforce overall.
That reality hasn’t produced a matching wave of planning. The ABA Journal has reported that firms often have retirement policies they struggle to enforce, or no plan for their older lawyers at all. A Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute survey found that fewer than a quarter of law firms have mandatory retirement policies, and firms consistently cite a partner’s resistance to retirement as the most common obstacle to succession planning.
The practical consequence is significant. Client relationships, institutional knowledge, and leadership are concentrated in attorneys at or approaching traditional retirement age, and many of their firms have no structured way to transfer any of it.
The Rainmaker’s Blind Spot
The pattern is sharpest in small and midsize firms, where one or two rainmakers often generate most of the work.
“Many of us get stuck, doing the same stuff day after day. Many of the rainmakers of small firms don’t think about retiring.
Now in their 60’s many rainmakers have created a strong legal practice. Suddenly, they wake up, and realize there is no one who can take over the firm. Don’t get me wrong in today’s business world being 60 is the new ‘middle age’.
But, now what do you do? Hire a young candidate to take over? It will take years to train your successor and there is no guarantee that it’s going to work out. Okay why not merge the practice or simply close shop. Don’t wait until life circumstances make the decisions for you.” says Shari Davidson.
That last line is the heart of the issue. Waiting feels like keeping your options open. In practice, it closes them. Every year without a plan is a year a potential successor didn’t spend learning your clients, a year your book of business grew more dependent on you personally, and a year closer to the point where circumstances, not strategy, decide the outcome.
Why Accomplished Partners Put It Off
An attorney who is 40 or 50 and expects to practice for another two decades may see no urgency. That’s understandable. It’s also a mistake. Developing a successor and transitioning client relationships both take years, which means the planning window opens far earlier than most partners assume.
Senior partners face a different set of obstacles, and most of them are psychological. Some are simply reluctant to think about retirement. Others worry that grooming a successor makes them vulnerable, and that developing someone capable of handling their clients is the first step toward being replaced. A few quietly believe that the absence of a plan is its own form of job security. If no one else can do what they do, no one can push them out.
That logic protects the partner in the short term and exposes the practice in the long term. Clients notice when a firm has no bench. So do the talented associates and junior partners who might have become successors, and who eventually leave for platforms where the path forward is visible.
The ABA’s Senior Lawyers Division has observed that most firms still rely on ad hoc arrangements rather than structured succession programs, and that older solo practitioners are especially likely to skip planning, in part because there is no firm pushing them to do it.
Your Options Narrow the Longer You Wait
Shari’s question, “now what do you do?”, has several possible answers. The earlier you ask it, the more of them remain available.
Developing an internal successor gives you the most control, but it’s also the slowest path. It takes years to train a successor, and there is no guarantee the first candidate will be the right one. Starting early gives you time to evaluate, adjust, and try again if needed.
Bringing in a lateral partner can shorten the timeline. An experienced lateral with a compatible practice can step into leadership faster than an attorney developed from within. The risk is fit. Culture, compensation expectations, and practice alignment all have to work, and a mismatched lateral can create more disruption than having no successor at all.
Merging with or joining a larger firm can preserve your client relationships and give your team a long-term home. Mergers take time to evaluate properly, and the strongest negotiating position belongs to a practice that is healthy and growing, not one whose founder needs an exit next year.
Selling the practice is possible under ABA Model Rule 1.17 and the state versions of that rule, which set specific conditions for transferring client matters. Winding down remains an option too, but it captures the least value for everything you’ve built.
Every one of these paths works better with time. None of them works well as an emergency response.
Clients Decide Whether Succession Works
Firms often treat succession as an internal matter. Clients see it differently. They hired a lawyer they trust, and they have no obligation to stay when that lawyer leaves.
Bloomberg Law has noted that clients effectively control the succession process. If they don’t receive capable, fully integrated replacements for a retiring partner, they take their work elsewhere. The same analysis found that how much of a retiring partner’s business a firm retains tends to track directly with how much time and effort that partner puts into introducing clients to successors.
That makes client transition the most important and most time-consuming part of any succession plan. A successor introduced in your final six months is a stranger. A successor who has worked alongside you on a client’s matters for several years is a continuation of a relationship the client already values.
Succession Planning Is Also a Professional Responsibility
There is an ethical dimension beyond business value. As The American Lawyer has reported, the ABA describes succession planning as essential to every lawyer’s practice because it protects clients and colleagues in the event of a lawyer’s disability or death, and the ABA maintains a resource tracking each state’s related requirements. Those requirements vary by jurisdiction, so any plan should be reviewed with qualified counsel.
Know What Your Practice Is Worth
You can’t plan an exit without understanding what you’re exiting. An accurate business valuation is one of the most useful tools a partner can have, whether the eventual path is an internal transition, a merger, or a sale.
A valuation shows how dependent the practice is on you personally, how transferable your client relationships are, and where value is concentrated or at risk. It shapes retirement timing, informs conversations with potential successors and merger partners, and often reveals that the practice is worth considerably more with a plan than without one. Professionals who understand the unique dynamics of law firms can explain how valuation affects your exit strategy and retirement options.
Building a Plan That Evolves With You
Succession planning is not a document you write once and file away. It’s an ongoing process that should grow and change with the practice.
Start by developing your firm’s future leaders. Identify attorneys with the judgment, client skills, and ambition to take on more, then give them real responsibility, including client-facing responsibility, well before you need them to carry it alone.
Plan for departures at every level. Staff and attorneys will leave for reasons that have nothing to do with you. A firm that can replace people with minimal disruption is a firm that can absorb the eventual departure of its founder.
Deepen leadership capacity across the organization. Firms that route every decision through one person are fragile. Firms that distribute leadership are positioned for growth, and they are far more attractive to potential successors, lateral partners, and merger candidates.
Ask your team about their plans. Require partners and senior attorneys to articulate where they see themselves going, with the understanding that they are not committing to specific dates. The goal is visibility, not a binding timeline. You can’t plan around intentions no one has shared.
Many partners worry that building a succession plan means being pushed out. It doesn’t. You’re not bowing out early. You’re building value and creating a foundation today that gives the next generation a real opportunity. Done right, a succession plan is what makes the retirement you actually want possible.
Where to Begin
Work with an experienced advisor who can give you a comprehensive understanding of the succession planning process and help you increase the value of your practice. From there, three steps will get the process moving.
First, set goals. Decide what you want to get out of the practice and what you want the business to look like after you’re gone. Those answers drive every other decision.
Second, identify the critical issues that affect your succession. That includes client concentration, the depth of your bench, partnership agreement terms, and your own timeline.
Third, map out your transition to the next stage of your career. If you run a solo or small firm practice, read our companion piece, Confessions of a Legal Recruiter: Succession Planning for Solos and Small Firms.
Build a Contingency Into Your Plan
Change is a fact of life. No matter how carefully you plan, something unexpected can derail your primary plan: a successor who leaves, a merger that falls through, a health event that accelerates the timeline. Build a contingency into your succession plan so a single point of failure doesn’t unravel years of work. Name a backup. Document key client relationships and matter details. Make sure someone other than you knows where everything is.
Frequently Asked Questions About Law Firm Succession Planning
When should a law firm partner start succession planning?
Ideally, succession planning should begin years before you expect to step back. Developing a successor and transitioning client relationships can take considerable time, and starting early preserves more options. Even partners in their 40s benefit from a basic contingency plan in case of an unexpected event.
What happens to a law firm without a succession plan?
When a key partner leaves suddenly, the firm often loses clients who were loyal to that attorney rather than the institution. Remaining attorneys may scramble to cover matters, and the practice’s value can drop sharply. In the worst cases, the firm merges on unfavorable terms or closes.
Should I groom an internal successor or bring in a lateral partner?
It depends on your timeline, your bench, and your clients. Internal successors offer continuity but take longer to develop. Lateral partners can step in faster but carry fit risk. Many firms use both, developing internal talent while strategically adding laterals to fill gaps.
How do I transfer client relationships to a successor?
Gradually and visibly. Bring your successor into client matters years before you step back, let clients see them handle meaningful work, and shift day-to-day responsibility over time. Clients stay when they already trust the person taking over.
Is succession planning an ethical obligation for lawyers?
The ABA considers succession planning essential to protecting clients in the event of a lawyer’s disability or death, and many states have related requirements. Specific obligations vary by jurisdiction, so consult qualified counsel about the rules that apply to you.
Answer the Question Before Life Answers It for You
The partners who control their exits are the ones who started planning while they still had options. Whether your timeline is three years or fifteen, the time to answer “when do you plan to leave?” is now.
If you can’t yet answer that question with confidence, it’s time to start the conversation.
If you are beginning to think about succession, retirement, or the future of your practice, On Balance Search Consultants can help you evaluate your options and develop a strategy before circumstances make the decision for you.
For a deeper look at the decisions that shape an attorney’s career, request a complimentary copy of The Arc of an Attorney’s Career. DM CLARITY on LinkedIn or email Shari@OnBalanceSearch.com.
Who’s Driving Your Career?™
Shari@OnBalanceSearch.com | OnBalanceSearch.com | 516-731-3400
All conversations are confidential.
About On Balance Search Consultants
On Balance Search Consultants provides market intelligence and strategic advisory services to law firms and experienced attorneys. Shari Davidson, President, advises on lateral partner transitions, law firm growth, leadership succession, and attorney career strategy. Working with both firms and attorneys, On Balance helps align long-term objectives with the right platform, leadership structure, and growth strategy.
Contact: OnBalanceSearch.com | 516-731-3400
Disclaimer: This content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Readers should consult qualified legal counsel regarding their specific circumstances and applicable legal requirements.
Sources
American Bar Association, “Demographics.” https://www.americanbar.org/news/profile-legal-profession/demographics/
ABA Journal, “Retiring Reluctantly: As Lawyers Age, Many Struggle with Exit Strategies.” https://www.abajournal.com/web/article/retiring-reluctantly-as-lawyers-age-many-struggle-with-exit-strategies
Thomson Reuters, “Thinking About a Succession Plan for Your Law Firm?” https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/blog/thinking-about-a-succession-plan-for-your-law-firm/
Bloomberg Law, “Clients Have All the Leverage in Law Firm Succession Planning.” https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/clients-have-all-the-leverage-in-law-firm-succession-planning
American Bar Association, “Practical Techniques for Succession Planning.” https://www.americanbar.org/groups/senior_lawyers/resources/voice-of-experience/2025-march/practical-techniques-for-succession-planning/
The American Lawyer, “Client Succession Guide for Retiring Partners.” https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/2025/02/21/client-succession-guide-for-retiring-partners/
