March 3, 2008 by David Sorin.

Yes baby boomers, we are getting tired. We have practiced law for forty years or so and we want to slow down, even get out all together. Is our firm ready for that? If all baby boomers want to start cashing out, is the cash there? Can the firm survive?

What a dilemma for firm founders. They have put their heart and soul into building a successful law firm and when they want to retire and live out their lives in luxury or near luxury they may have to destroy their creation to be able to do it.

Hopefully, there is some planning going on somewhere. Baby boomers being the biggest age group in our nation’s history, are going to be retiring in droves over the next few years. Firms should have been preparing for this for years. Those that bought in will want to be bought out. How will we do it? When will we do it? Plan, plan, plan.

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March 3, 2008 by David Sorin.

How many times have we heard the above saying? It usually refers to lawyers who are a party in a lawsuit. But what about law firms that handle their own legal work? What about those firms that don’t do the things they advise their clients to do? Aren’t they just as foolish?

I can’t tell you how many law firms I have spoken with who do not have a policy and procedures manual. This is shocking to me. How many lawsuits do they have to hear about before they protect themselves?

How many law firms keep their corporate minutes up to date? Draft resolutions for shareholder or partner actions? Use their bylaws to govern their actions?

Like doctors, lawyers probably treat their clients better than they treat themselves. Law firms should probably have outside counsel review their documents. It could be done the way professional golfers keep score for each other.

Law firms need to operate like businesses and in a business-like fashion. Managing partners need to set the tone for firm behavior. No shortcuts, please.

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February 8, 2008 by David Sorin.

Law firms are starting to discovery a disturbing trend. Their associates do not all have a desire to be partners. In fact, more and more associates are looking at having a balanced lifestyle rather than the “secure” future of partnership. Firms need to wake up to this fact and reconsider their operational model before it is too late. Instead of being able to choose future partners from a group of associates all of whom want to make partner, firms may have to choose from among a small percentage who want partnership and then decide what to do with the others.

In the near future, there will be more jobs than applicants. It will be a candidate’s market. And candidates may be choosing firms not on the basis of their prestige or high starting salaries and benefits, but on their culture and the quality of life they afford their employees.

Wake up firms!! Look at your cultures. Consider how you treat your associates and staff. Give some thought to whether you have a mentoring program, offer development plans, give serious feedback and performance reviews, listen to what your employees want to be doing and in other ways think about your firm from an employee point of view.

And remember, what you are not doing, some other firms will do. And when future employees have a choice, where do you think they will go?

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