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More Lawyers May Delay Retirement Due to Stock Drop, Crowding their Firms
Posted Jan 8, 2009 9:15 AM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The drop in the stock market is likely to make many lawyers think twice about taking retirement. At the same time, firms squeezed by the economic downturn can’t afford the incentives to entice older partners to leave.
Many firms are opting to do away with mandatory retirement at a time when about 250,000 Baby Boomer lawyers are nearing retirement age, the National Law Journal reports. The result is that law firms with less work to hand out will be flush with older lawyers.
Blogger and law firm consultant Bruce MacEwen discussed the problem with the National Law Journal. "You have to clear the decks for new blood," MacEwen said. He noted that few associates are leaving firms, leaving firms with too many older and younger lawyers.
The story profiles Steven Deruyter, a partner with Minneapolis-based Leonard, Street and Deinard who is nearing retirement age. Deruyter’s retirement fund has lost about 40 percent of its value. Now he’s rethinking his retirement plans. "I probably could retire, but I won't be as comfortable doing so," he told the publication.
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Comments
B. McLeod
Jan 8, 2009 11:02 AM CST
The question should not be how “old” or “young” a lawyer is, but whether they have enough of their own work to support them. Today, large firms are really oversize but loose confederations of attorneys constantly looking for a lateral road to more money. When these mercenary confederations get to a point where attorneys who have enough of their own work are being pressed to give it up to attorneys who can’t support themselves (whether termed “associates” or “senior partners”), that firm’s days are numbered.
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Clarity2009
Jan 8, 2009 5:05 PM CST
Many older attorneys had assistance in building their book of business thanks to the prior generation passing on legacy clients. Now that these same attorneys are refusing to do the same to serve their own selfish legacy, it will only hurt the next generation of lawyers who are increasingly pressed to sacrifice a greater portion of their personal lives to assemble a book of business from scratch. As a result, many of the best and brightest attorneys are exciting the industry due to have the nerve to demand some minimal amount of work/life balance that is quickly becoming an impossibility.
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