Lawyers

Retiring Like A Lawyer

There's more to life than litigation.

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Nice knowing ya!

Do you believe in life after law? There’s nothing wrong with working at a firm until you join Heaven’s litigation department, but if you’ve been thinking about a chance of pace before then, there is a lot of work (or relaxation!) waiting for you out there that doesn’t operate on .6 increments. ABA Journal interviewed several lawyers who decided that a change of pace was in their cards.

A few years before he retired in 2022, Pete Pontzer was rethinking his life. He was working as an administrative judge in Washington, D.C. …Pontzer mulled over the goals he had for his life, including “being young and healthy enough” to enjoy the outdoors, family and adventures. He decided that he wanted to retire in his 50s, but not without making sure the finances made sense and that he had thought through what he wanted for the next stage of his life.

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After retiring, Pontzer hiked the Pacific Crest Trail until he broke his foot and had to take a break. In 2023, he finished the Pacific Crest Trail and started the Continental Divide Trail.

There were a few things going in Pete’s favor — his pension was up and running and he had health coverage — but his story goes to show that retirement doesn’t need to be something you wait until you are well in your 60s or 70s for. There are folks that form community around the idea of financial independence and retiring early (FIRE for short), and many of them get started on that track making a lot less than the emerging new partner standard of $20M a year.

Thankfully Pontzer didn’t pull an “Into The Wild” before he decided to call out forever — there were some baseline concerns he had the foresight to consider before he decided not to go back to work. Each person’s can I do this list looks different, but his would be a good place to start your own:

“Before I retired, I had mentally taken notes on what kind of people were happy in retirement because I wanted that time to be something I actually enjoyed,” says Pontzer, who has a wife and two daughters. “I am probably one of the happiest people you will know because I put it together—the finances, finding a community, having meaning in my life, goals and being physically active.”

The hornbook version? Establish some sort of income, then math out the cost of the life you’d like to live. Now go back and see if maintaining that life is affordable with the amount that you’d have to budget for yourself. Now go back and be honest with yourself and your wallet this time. And for the love of all that is legal make sure that you have medical insurance. The longer version requires more elaboration, but if you plan on doing something this big you should do it right:

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Besides immediate requirements for retirement, like financial security and client succession plans, lawyers contemplating retirement should examine what they want and need to be happy without their usual jobs to keep them busy, retirement experts and recent retirees say.

For some lawyers, retirement can mean stopping work altogether to pursue interests and spend time with family. But for others, retirement means either continuing to use their legal skills to work part-time or pro bono—or coming up with an entirely new career.

And if it sounds like too much to think through on your own, you could always hire a coach! Daniel Roberts shifted from practicing to helping attorneys retire and had this to say:

“The worst thing you could do as you go into retirement is to jump on a board right away, for example,” says Roberts, who practiced law for 25 years before switching to coaching lawyers.

He advises clients to experiment with their interests before they retire.
“If you think you will want to play guitar in retirement, take some classes beforehand and see if you really like it,” Roberts says.

Thinking about retirement can be a comforting thought exercise. But if you want to actually work toward retirement — whenever that is —  the sooner you concretely think about your hows and whys, the better. Don’t forget the wheres either. Sure you could retire and stay where you are, but you could also move states. Maybe California? Maybe Cambodia? Both have great food! Either way, sketch it out. You don’t want to be blowing out your retirement candles somewhere down the road not knowing what’s next once your last box is out of the office.

Resting Your Cases [ABA Journal]

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Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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