Old People

After Your Legal Career Is Over...

You've retired... now what?

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One issue confronting senior lawyers is a lack of identity, that is, “if I am not a lawyer, then what am I?” This is a problem for many lawyers who don’t know what to do with themselves if they are not practicing. My sense is that we will always be lawyers with whatever positive and/or negative connotations attach. (In fact, the State Bar of California always knows where you are, even if you are dead. The membership record lists as “deceased” those taking dirt naps.)

How you approach the identity issue is critical to the rest of your life. Some examples shared with me:

One lawyer, when asked to move with his girlfriend to a retirement environment, resisted, stating that he couldn’t retire, because if he wasn’t a lawyer then what was he? Several years later, he died by suicide.

Another lawyer, in his early sixties, who got laid off in the never-ending spiral of layoffs, “right-sizing,” and other euphemisms, found that he is very happy not practicing any more. The stress has evaporated, and he is delighted to have non-lawyer jobs where someone else has the stress of making decisions. He can just work from “9 to 5,” so to speak and enjoy his family, home life, and hobbies. He does not have Dabney Coleman as his boss.  

The movie 9 to 5 is almost forty years old, but it was prescient about the #Times Up, #Me Too movements. The movie was made in 1980, and so for millennials it’s a must see. The movements’ issues are nothing new, but history shows that the 1980s were different times and there was no social media then.

Is there’s enough money available to retire? That’s a huge issue for many of us. There have been lots of articles about the “wealth transfer” from the greatest generation parents to us boomers .However, there was no such “wealth transfer” to me and most of my friends. What I have now is what I have for the future and I am sure there are many others similarly situated. For many dinosaurs, it’s not enough to last through either welcome or unwelcome retirement. 

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The loss of business can and does happen at any age, but it seems to hit harder the older we get as the well of potential business starts to dry up. Business referral sources retire, get laid off, go elsewhere, and die. It’s part of the natural order of things, but that still doesn’t make it any easier.

When companies change general counsel or others in the chain who make hiring decisions about outside counsel, it’s a whole new world for the outside counsel who are often dazed and confused by the changes. Where once there was a steady stream of work, now there is just a trickle, if even that. Mindful of legal spend, corporate legal departments bring more work inhouse, are more concerned about diversity and inclusion in their outside counsel choices (yay!) which leave outside counsel wondering where their next case from the company is going to come from, if there is ever another one. 

The decrease or outright lack of business can hit many senior lawyers hard, bring them up short, and realize that what was is no more. So, what to do? Network (gag) more? Write more articles? Speak at more events?  Run down the street with your hair on fire?  (That’s my personal favorite but I have been dissuaded on more than one occasion.)  Lawyering’s a business, remember? It may be a “relationship” business, but it’s still a business and there are all kinds of legal and nonlegal providers now making inroads into what used to be the exclusive province of lawyers. Competition is fiercer than ever. How to compete with a robot?

Another lawyer friend of mine who has watched his business fall off a cliff plans to retire this year. It’s unclear whether he’s jumping or being pushed, but the result is the same. He’s full of plans for what he will do, including turning one of his hobbies into a business. Life exists on the other side of practice. It takes time to find that life and you have to shed your ego of “I am a lawyer,” not easy to do.

Inextricably intertwined with the identity issue is the social isolation issue, which is a major concern for seniors, and senior lawyers are no exception. Many senior lawyers still have offices that they go to every day. They interact with others, lunch with them, discuss cases and issues, and generally feel that they are still part of the legal community. 

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Millennials don’t find the same need for physical space, except for coworking spaces, and so the need for interacting with others is different. I know many senior lawyers who have relinquished office space (overhead reduction) and are working from home. It can work, but it’s important to catapult yourself out of that home office chair and into the world.

Technology has changed so many aspects of legal practice and in doing so has, I think, increased the social isolation that lawyers can and do feel.  While I hated schlepping to an MCLE program after work, there were always others there that I knew, who were there because they had to be. Webinars have made physical attendance pretty much a thing of the past.

So, how do we combat social isolation if that’s a concern? Some of us play golf (not me) and/or play bridge (I am terrible at it), travel (see above for money concerns), hang out with families and friends. To those who want to still feel a part of the legal framework, if that’s important, there’s always pro bono work, but some lawyers don’t want the lawyering stress of even pro bono.

Whether we continue to practice, retire, go off in other directions, for all of us dinosaurs, when asked the inevitable question as to what we do, I think most will automatically say, “I’m a lawyer,” using the present tense. That’s who we have been and will always be.

old lady lawyer elderly woman grandmother grandma laptop computerJill Switzer has been an active member of the State Bar of California for over 40 years. She remembers practicing law in a kinder, gentler time. 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 dinosaurs, millennials, and those in-between interact — it’s not always civil. You can reach her by email at oldladylawyer@gmail.com.

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