Old People

Old Lady Lawyer: Nothing Succeeds Like Succession... Planning

Making sure the client doesn't feel abandoned during a transition process.

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Ed. note: It’s not the battle of the sexes, but the battle of the ages, between the graying of the legal profession and those lawyers not yet eligible for Medicare or even an AARP membership. Can they co-exist in the legal world’s new normal? Please welcome our newest columnist, Jill Switzer.

At my last in-house job, there were five lawyers (myself being one of them) who were all born the same year (the year is irrelevant, but suffice it to say that we all remembered where we were when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated).  We joked about how all of us would probably be carried out of our offices (yes, those antiquated spaces that were not cubes) feet first, or on stretchers, or by EMTs carrying oxygen equipment to keep us breathing until such time as we could get to the ER.

We all liked our jobs, the camaraderie and collegiality that seems to be another relic of a bygone era, but there were times when we looked at each other and said, “uh-oh, what would happen, who will be there to keep this department going?” It was not an idle question then, and it’s not an idle question now.

Before going to law school, I worked as morning news editor for an all news radio station in a very major market.  I was trained by Norm, an amazing man, who became both friend and mentor, and who taught me everything, and I mean everything, he knew about running the editor’s desk for an eight hour shift on a daily basis.  He didn’t leave anything out.

Running the editor’s desk for an eight hour shift, where deadlines are non-stop, was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced since. That was back in the day of newswire machines,  which spat out endless copy and clanged incessantly, typewriters (I’ve mentioned them before) going at warp speed, at least a dozen police scanners from different jurisdictions cranked to the highest volume possible,  newsroom phones ringing off the hook all the time, news anchors yelling for more copy, engineers in master control hollering that the tape recorder the reporter used didn’t pick up anything at the mayor’s news conference, and some Ted Baxter (look him up; yes, they existed even on radio) types wandering through the newsroom.

Unlike some people I knew then and have known since then, while Norm believed that knowledge was power, he believed in the sharing of that power and set me up to succeed. It still amazes me that people are so jealous to share what they know, believing that such collaboration diminishes them. A topic for a future column, perhaps.

One day, while sitting with Norm at the editor’s desk, I asked him why he was so willing to share everything he knew so that I could do my best job. He looked at me from behind his owlish glasses, blue eyes blinking steadily, and in his gravelly newsradio anchor voice, told me that if he keeled over at the editor’s desk, he expected me to “kick his body aside,” and sit in the editor’s chair without any hint of his DB (dead body) and the necessary transition.  He understood, long before many others, the value of succession planning.

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As we older lawyers consider their options beside working until we drop dead, we need to figure out how to do succession planning in a way that makes sense not just for the older lawyers and the younger lawyers, but also for the clients. Just as we lawyers don’t like surprises, clients don’t either, and nothing can rattle a client more and push the relationship to the brink of dissolution than that a new lawyer is now assigned to the matter without any introduction and transition preparation by the prior lawyer.

This is true not only for law firms and in-house departments, but especially for solos and small firms, no more so than when the departing lawyer (voluntarily or involuntarily) was the only one handling that client or that specific matter, and no plans have been made for the transition.

Think about it:  how many times have you represented a client and the person with whom you have been working leaves? How many times have you been advised in advance as to her replacement? How many times have you been introduced to that replacement in advance? How many times have you been advised as to that replacement’s level of knowledge about the particular transaction or litigation for which you’ve been retained? Not that often, if at all, right?

Then ensues the mad scramble to bring the replacement up to speed; deadlines loom.  Who has the authority to make the business decisions to close the deal and sign the documents?  Who should be designated as the person most knowledgeable in the organization for a deposition relating to business practices? Who executes the discovery declarations? The list goes on and on.  Who has settlement authority? You’re frustrated and so is the new (at least to you) client representative.

Time to put the Ferragamo (look it up) shoe on the other foot and put yourself in the client’s shoes when there’s no succession planning at your firm, your in-house department, or even worse, at your solo practice. In a sense, succession planning is like disaster recovery planning; it’s something every lawyer, every firm, regardless of size, every in-house department needs to have in place.

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The worst thing is for the client to feel abandoned during this transition process. Whom does the client call? Has the client had any contact with anyone else other than the lawyer working on the matter? Just like we all hate the VRU (voice response unit) while trying to get to customer service, the same applies to the frustrated client who doesn’t know where to turn. Where is the file? Who is working on the file? Who will be in charge of the relationship with this client? There’s been no introduction to anyone else at the firm, especially younger colleagues (if there are any). Why should the client feel any differently than the lawyer who doesn’t know who her client now is?

It’s more than just imparting the legal and factual knowledge to the successor lawyer, although that’s critical; it’s imparting the relationship knowledge as well. While the successor lawyer does not necessarily have to kick the older lawyer’s body aside (apologies to my mentor Norm), the older lawyer must be willing to share the knowledge and the relationship to meet the client’s needs.  After all, we’re still in the profession to serve the clients, right?

Jill Switzer is closing in on 40 (not a typo) years as a active member of the State Bar of California. Yes, folks, California, that state west of the Sierra Nevada, which everyone likes to diss. She’s had a diverse legal career, including stints as a deputy district attorney, a solo practice, and several senior in-house gigs. She now mediates full-time, which gives her the opportunity to see old lawyers, young lawyers, and those in-between interact — it’s not always pretty. You can reach her by email at oldladylawyer@gmail.com.

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