Partner Retirement

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For more than a few AmLaw 200 law firms, non-qualified retirement plans exist that are largely unfunded. Although “a good idea at the time” when established, the plans now can represent a significant burden. As James Cotterham wrote in his Retirement Basics for Law Firms a decade ago, the unfunded pension plans can be a…

In a recent post about law firm succession planning, I observed

 “Succession planning and execution in 2014 is far more difficult than it was a decade or more ago. It is not that it is harder today to identify credible candidates to succeed existing leadership; searching for the best talent is a task that has

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Law firms planning for succession cannot rest easy even when the “next-in-line” process is settled or the next leader selected. No doubt thinking about these things is vitally important for a law firm hoping to weather transition. But it is just part of the task of succession planning.

One area of succession planning given short…

Today, succession planning for law firms is more than finding the charismatic leader who is liked by most. Any new leader (actually, any leader whether new or not) must have the vision to compete in the age of New Law.

Jordan Furlong’s An Incomplete Inventory of New Law is an excellent summary of new players…

A smart merger of two law firms requires careful study about compatibility. Fits between two law firms seldom are perfect. But if the cultures, financial metrics, clients and compensation systems generally are in sync, the opportunity for a successful merger exists. While one of these merger variables actually may be strained, harmony among…