Succession Planning for Law Firms

Succession planning is an essential process for all businesses, and law firms are no exception. The process entails identifying the employees that are good candidates for promotion, developing them further for their future roles, and planning how and when they will be promoted.

Significance

As with every other business, it is inevitable that current employees will leave the firm due to various reasons and new employees will emerge. A law firm that fails to plan for these eventualities could find itself in a great deal of managerial and financial trouble, as well as with clients who could be negatively impacted by the events and may choose to file a legal malpractice lawsuit.

Reasoning

Lawyers will leave law firms due to retirement, acceptance of jobs with other firms, decisions to enter private practice, or unexpected events such as illness and death. It is the responsibility of the law firm to find new lawyers to fill the roles left by old employees in order to ensure the success of the firm and to protect clients.

Selecting and Developing Candidates

Law firms should keep a running list of any employees that are planning to retire or are likely to leave the firm. The firms management should then select new employees that are capable of filling the roles and duties that are left behind. The selected employees should be assigned tasks and cases that will properly prepare them for their future roles.

Planning Promotions

Most employees will make the firm aware of their intentions to retire from or otherwise leave the firm well ahead of time. Develop a timeline and use it plan the promotion of the candidates that are currently in development.