Law.com Subscribers SAVE 30%

Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.

Accounting and Financial Planning for Law FirmsLJN NewslettersNewsSections

Understanding the Financial Aspects of Impending Retirement

By Ed Poll

As an estimated 400,000 lawyers from the Baby Boom era will reach the traditional retirement age in the upcoming decade, it is increasingly emphasized that there are significant ethical consequences for failing to plan a practice's future by transitioning client matters to a successor lawyer or firm. But a lesser publicized truth is equally certain: There are significant penalties in store for any lawyer who does not make a financial plan for succession into retirement. Certainly there are more caveats to this than there were just a few years ago as the lingering effects of the Great Recession make some lawyers fear that they cannot afford to retire. The truth remains, however, that no lawyer is immortal, and planning to practice until death or disability strikes is not planning at all.

The financial aspects of a potential retirement are different for lawyers working for big firms versus those in small or solo practices. The one constant is that the issues involved cannot and should not be ignored, as lawyers tend to do. Even transactional lawyers typically are not known for personal financial foresightedness, as they ' like most of their peers ' focus much more on practice matters at hand than on financial matters in the future. Lawyers who do this are cheating both themselves and their heirs. At minimum, whether in a large or small firm, lawyers nearing retirement age have some important financial issues that must be considered, the sooner the better.

This premium content is locked for Entertainment Law & Finance subscribers only

  • Stay current on the latest information, rulings, regulations, and trends
  • Includes practical, must-have information on copyrights, royalties, AI, and more
  • Tap into expert guidance from top entertainment lawyers and experts

For enterprise-wide or corporate acess, please contact Customer Service at [email protected] or 877-256-2473

Read These Next
Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the Rough Image

There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.

Judge Rules Shaquille O'Neal Will Face Securities Lawsuit for Promotion, Sale of NFTs Image

A federal district court in Miami, FL, has ruled that former National Basketball Association star Shaquille O'Neal will have to face a lawsuit over his promotion of unregistered securities in the form of cryptocurrency tokens and that he was a "seller" of these unregistered securities.

Removing Restrictive Covenants In New York Image

In Rockwell v. Despart, the New York Supreme Court, Third Department, recently revisited a recurring question: When may a landowner seek judicial removal of a covenant restricting use of her land?

Why So Many Great Lawyers Stink at Business Development and What Law Firms Are Doing About It Image

Why is it that those who are best skilled at advocating for others are ill-equipped at advocating for their own skills and what to do about it?

Blockchain Domains: New Developments for Brand Owners Image

Blockchain domain names offer decentralized alternatives to traditional DNS-based domain names, promising enhanced security, privacy and censorship resistance. However, these benefits come with significant challenges, particularly for brand owners seeking to protect their trademarks in these new digital spaces.