Berks Barrister Fall 2018 - 18

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18 | Berks Barrister

Options for Winding Down Your Practice
Continued from page 17
Finding a buyer is more art than science. It's important to
be able to get the word out. Some potential sellers are highly
paranoid that if word gets out they are looking to retire/sell, their
client intake will reduce to a trickle before a sale can consummate.
That's a real concern depending on the sources that put work into
the pipeline. Blind ads or a broker (only one who deals with law
firm sales!) may be required. The less open you can be the harder it
will be to find a seller quickly or at all.
Keep in mind that there are a lot of experienced attorneys who
want their own firm, but are not willing to start one from scratch.
They are frequently willing to relocate to acquire a well-run firm.
There are also large and midsize out of town firms looking to get a
foothold in smaller communities. The more provincial your town,
the more attractive it may be. So you have to get the word out to
potential buyers in a wide geographic area.
At the other end of the time spectrum is transitioning
ownership of your firm to a homegrown attorney. It can take five
to ten years for this process. You need to locate the right young,
smart and willing attorney. You can't assume they will want to
acquire your practice someday. You need to discuss it openly.
Then you need to mentor, not just in technical skills, but in
management of the firm, client development, and client service.
You have to get him/her involved early on in voicing opinions on
upgrades to be done, particularly where technology and marketing
are concerned, and in helping to implement change. And most
importantly, unless you want to lose this person when you are in
sniffing distance of retirement, you must start transferring equity,
year by year, beginning long before you actually retire. Easier
decided mentally than executed emotionally, I assure you.
For the actual closing of your practice, without sale or
transition, you should plan to begin taking action approximately
three to five years ahead. Exceptions to that would include longterm leases which expire ahead of that timeframe, as well as the
maintenance of client files.
Probably the thorniest issue every attorney faces is compliance
with Rule 1.15 (Safekeeping property) which continues long after
matters conclude, even beyond your retirement. It applies from the
moment you start the file, until it is destroyed. The problem is that
if you - like many attorneys for decades - kept original documents
of clients, you may have unwittingly become a permanent
repository. Originals cannot be destroyed without the written
permission of the client.
When you have files spanning decades, your chance of locating
clients and obtaining permission to destroy originals is very small.
I know, because I get the frustrated calls from the attorneys and
sometimes their surviving relatives or estate representatives, asking
me what to do. For every thousand letters that get sent, probably
thirty will respond. Probably 300 or more will come back due to
an invalid address.

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Berks Barrister Fall 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Berks Barrister Fall 2018