The New Zealand Law Society has published a LawTalk article on succession and retirement planning, focusing on what is required to close a practice or hand over work in an orderly way. The article draws on the experience of retired solicitor and sole practitioner Sue Styants, who closed her Auckland office after 43 years in legal practice following 18 months of planning and preparation, as well as the experience of partners at AWS Legal and Cruickshank Pryde Lawyers.
The article emphasises that retirement and succession planning need to begin well before the intended exit date. For sole practitioners, this includes deciding whether to sell, merge or close the practice, communicating directly with clients, helping them identify new lawyers where appropriate, and managing document transfers. For firms, the article highlights the value of starting partner transition planning several years in advance, matching clients with successors, building a succession pipeline and creating clear pathways for younger lawyers.
The Law Society also includes a checklist for an orderly exit, covering timing, workload management, client communication, deeds and long-term documents, active client work, compliance and regulatory steps, and the personal transition into life after practice. A separate section addresses trust account closure, noting that there is often a lead time of at least one month and that practitioners need to deal with client funds, records and assurances to the Law Society Inspectorate.
For regulators, succession and retirement are not only practice management issues, it can also lead to disciplinary consequences where inadequate planning has led to serious problems with trust money and compliance. The use of case studies to illustrate what others have done to prepare for closure of their practices, is a good prompt for practitioners who may not engage so readily with more formal guidance notes.