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Plan to Say Goodbye While You Are Able
By Carol P.
Waldhauser
At the age of 65,
John Doe, Esquire, is an active attorney with no intention of
retiring. In fact, he cannot bring himself to even whisper the “R
word.” However, John realizes that life happens. Furthermore, he
believes that he has an ethical obligation to protect his clients’
interests in the event of his death, disability, impairment or
incapacity. For those reasons, John decided that while he was active,
thinking clearly and objectively, he should have a plan for retiring
gracefully and at an appropriate time before becoming a burden or,
worse, an embarrassment or liability to his partners, associations and
clients.
As Americans
continue to live longer, healthier lives, many individuals are
choosing to work well past the traditional age of retirement. Some
stay on for purely financial reasons, but a growing number continue to
work because it is their lifeline and their identity is intertwined
with their careers. For them, being forced to give up their practices
because of old age would be equivalent to giving up their lives.
While natural
aging dictates that the deterioration of mind and body may at some
point require a lawyer to call it quits, a young lawyer may become
chronically ill or disabled. This often happens before he or she is
otherwise ready – financially or mentally – to stop practicing.
Consequently, peer or friend may be left with closing a law practice
due to an untimely health problem or death.
One law student
who prefers not to be named still wishes that more information had
been available when the sole-practitioner for whom she worked became
chronically ill and subsequently died. The entire experience
drastically changed all of the parties involved, both prior to and
after the sole-practitioner’s death. And although she found the
courage to tell him to stop trying cases (and even to stop driving to
the office), so many other problems might have been avoided had
detailed planning been done in advance.
Unfortunately,
anxiety and avoidance are among the primary reasons that many
attorneys fail to plan for an untimely disaster. However, there is
ample information available today for the astute attorney. Listed
below are some of the basic forms that are available through the MSBA
Lawyer Assistance Program (LAP). These forms can assist in protecting
your clients’ interests and will help you to make your practice a
valuable asset that can be sold to benefit you or your estate. In
addition, they can simplify the closure of your office – a step your
family and colloquies will very much appreciate. These forms include:
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Checklist for
Lawyers Planning to Protect Clients’ Interest in the Event of the
Lawyer’s Death, Disability, Impairment or Incapacity
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Checklist for
Closing Another Attorney’s Office
-
Checklist for
Closing Your Own Office
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Sample forms
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Articles, rules,
formal opinions and other resources
Of course, we do
not live in a perfect world; there are many attorneys who do not plan
ahead, and for some it may be too late to do so. In many instances,
the attorney continues to attract clients but is unable to keep up
with the pace of his/her practice. Moreover, whether because of
illness or senility, the attorney may forget to appear in court, miss
meetings and fail to respond to pleadings or letters, among other
things. When and if death occurs, the attorney may leave behind stacks
of files and boxes without any semblance of organization or
information as to where files may be found. This in turn could lead to
malpractice claims being filed against the dead lawyer’s estate.
Few law firms have
instituted any policies short of mandatory retirement that are aimed
at helping lawyers make the transition out of the full-time practice
of law. In the absence of policy, LAP recommends an “intervention” to
discuss retirement with a lawyer. In an intervention, a group of
people close to the attorney come together to confront the
individual’s problematic behavior. The model calls for the process to
be conducted in a caring yet straightforward manner under the
direction of a third party trained in facilitating interventions.
In some respects,
retirement or planning for the closure of your practice can be more
difficult to discuss than other problems because you are dealing with
the end of a major portion of your life rather than a specific
behavior. For more information, call LAP at (410) 685-7878 or (800)
492-1964, ext. 252, or e-mail
cwaldhauser@msba.org. |
