Best Practice: How to deal with retirement
Asked and Answered
By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC
Q. I am the managing partner in a 12-attorney firm in Chicago. We have six partners and six associates. We are a boutique litigation firm. Three of our partners are in their mid to late 60s and should be thinking about retirement, but they seem to be in denial. How do we begin to address this issue?
A. Several years ago I was giving a presentation to an ALA (Association of Legal Administrators) Chapter and after the presentation an administrator came up to me and asked, “what kind of financial incentives can we put in place to encourage some of our senior attorneys to retire?” I responded by saying “help them identify some hobbies.” While my comment was partially in jest, many attorneys, especially baby boomers, have invested so much into their careers and law practices they have not had either the desire or time to invest into other areas of interest.
The more difficult components of retirement include:
- Coming to terms with aging and the fear of getting older;
- Deciding how to spend your time once you quit working;
- Identifying other interests;
- Preserving your self-esteem after retirement;
- Planning your retirement; and
- Dealing with the stress of retirement.
For some people the best way to retire may be to continue working. For others, it can be a time of personal growth and an opportunity to explore other interests, callings, and vocations. It can be a time of freedom to do what you always wanted to do but could not because you had to earn money and the pressure of work prevented you from pursuing you dreams and interests that were in tune with your values and beliefs. Here is a list of a few areas that lawyers approaching retirement might want to explore:
- Teaching courses at a local law school or university
- Pro-bono work
- Writing
- Photography, gardening, travel, or other hobbies
- Serving as a director on a profit or non-profit board
- Counseling
- Volunteering
Retirement planning begins with taking the time to think about how one will use their time. If you live 15 years beyond your retirement you will have 28,800 hours that will have to be filled with retirement activities. (five days a week, eight hours a day, 48 weeks, for fifteen years)
Find ways to encourage your senior attorneys to explore and think about their future and explore other interests - both at home and at the firm.
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John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC,(www.olmsteadassoc.com) is a past chair and member of the ISBA Standing Committee on Law Office Management and Economics. For more information on law office management please direct questions to the ISBA listserver, which John and other committee members review, or view archived copies of The Bottom Line Newsletters. Contact John at jolmstead@olmsteadassoc.com.