October 2019
Transitioning Out of Practice Without Leaving Money on the Table: Succession Planning for Solo and Small Firm Practitioners
Co-sponsored by the CBA Solo Small Firm Section
Program Description:
Do you have a plan to transition out of practice?
"I have thought about winding down my practice," is not a plan.
- What does your departure from practice really look like?
- Do you have a 5-10 year transition plan with a detailed agenda and planned strategies to extract as much value from your practice as possible?
- If you are the founding member of your firm or a solo practitioner, why would you close your practice or wind down without transferring some of that sweat equity to someone else without reaping some of the rewards of your hard work in doing so?
This is a process. It takes planning and strategizing to leave your clients in good hands and for you to walk away with something more than memories.
Under the Rules of Professional Conduct, if you are a solo practitioner, it is unethical not to have a backup plan. Why not have a plan that brings someone on board who can continue the practice and continue the revenue stream over time as you wind down? What if you want to sell your practice? Can you? What might that look like?
In this presentation, you will learn:
- How to prepare your practice to appeal to the buyer and obtain the highest price possible.
- How to find someone to replace you who is not only a great lawyer but a great fit!
- How to develop a transition plan that suits you (direct sale, conversion of equity over time, or some combination of the two).
- How to prepare your clients and staff for the transition so that it doesn't go off the rails.
- How to set up an emergency plan to close the practice in the event of your unanticipated disability or death.
- How to find a path to greater freedom and flexibility in retirement passing the baton to someone who can be trusted to maintain and grow the practice as you transition out.
- How to prepare you and your family for your leisure time ahead.
Ethics Content: This presentation will cover –
- Model Rule of Professional Conduct, 1.3, Comment 5
- Model Rule of Professional Conduct, 1.17, Comment 11
Save the Date for the 2020 Solo-Small Firm Institute
June 10-12, 2020
Cheyenne Mountain Resort
Meet Your Presenter:
*Mr.Bauer will present remotely*
Gary Bauer, Esq., is a tenured Professor of Law and Auxiliary Dean at Western Michigan University, Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan where he has been employed full time since 1997. He is the Director of the Sixty Plus Elderlaw Estate Planning Clinic, which he established in 1999. He is also the current Chair of the ABA GP Solo, Small Firm Division Legal Educator's Committee.
Professor Bauer has written numerous law journal articles and published multiple monographs in other professional publications. He has been a featured speaker at Michigan's Solo Institute and regularly is called upon to help practitioners, and the public alike, to better understand the principles of estate planning and practice management for lawyers. As past Chair of the Law Practice Management Section of the State Bar of Michigan, he was instrumental in the early formation and establishment of the Michigan Institute of Continuing Legal Education Solo Institute. He currently serves on that organization's Executive Planning Committee. In 2016 he was awarded the General Practice Solo Division of the American Bar Association's Trainer Award for 2016 and also recognized by the State Bar of Michigan with the Outstanding Achievement Award presented by that Bar's Solo and Small Firm Section in that year.
Professor Bauer has been very actively engaged in helping students and recent graduates prepare for the business of law either in solo or small firm practice. He conducts classes to train and assist law students to embark on careers which make sense for each of them. He has sponsored and maintains a Google Group as a listserv for over 350 grads and students in their efforts to communicate with one another and establish themselves in practice. He also published over 130 blogs in the last year and a half at sololawyerbydesign.com which is full of tips on how to succeed in practice.