Partner Leaving the Firm
When a partner leaves a law firm, it’s important to ensure their clients don’t go with them. Partners are often the most valuable asset of a law firm and can be hard to replace. When a partner leaves, there is often concern that they will take clients with them or that they were handling the client’s case in some capacity prior to leaving.
When you are a lawyer who owns and runs a law firm with other lawyers, you often have to make important decisions about your practice. If you decide to leave the firm or retire, it’s important to make sure that your clients don’t follow you out of the door. You need to make sure that they stay with your business so that they get all of their required legal services through your firm. There are several steps you can take in order to retain clientele after an ownership change in your law firm:
Inform Clients of the Change in Ownership/Leadership of the Firm
You should write a letter to your clients informing them about this change, as well as any other information you think they need to know. This letter can be sent out via email or snail mail, depending on what is most convenient for you and your client base. The following points should be included in this correspondence:
- Who bought the firm? What does he/she have experience doing? How long has he/she been practicing law? Does he/she have any specialties?
- Why did we sell our practice? Did we want more time off than was possible with our current workload? Did we feel like our business couldn’t grow anymore under our current model (i.e., solo practitioner)? Was there some sort of family emergency that required us to leave town suddenly and indefinitely (and therefore unable)?
Ask Clients if They Want to Stay with the Firm
- Ask clients if they are comfortable with the new leadership.
- Ask them if they would like to remain with the firm.
Give Your Clients Options
The first step is to provide clients with the option of transferring existing trust accounts to another lawyer at the firm. The client should be allowed to choose which lawyer they want to work with, and if they choose to transfer their trust account, you should inform them of what steps need to be taken in order for this process to take place smoothly.
The firm should ensure that the new lawyer is competent and trustworthy so that there’s no disruption in service during this transition period and that clients feel comfortable continuing their relationship with your firm after a partner leaves.
Make Sure that Any New Lawyer will Meet Client Expectations
Make sure that:
- The new lawyer has experience in the same area of law as your departing partner. If you practice family law, for example, look for someone who specializes in estate planning or probate and trust administration. If your departing partner handled personal injury cases exclusively while he was at your firm, then hire a colleague who specializes in personal injury lawsuits, not just an attorney who’s been around long enough to know what makes an excellent car accident case but hasn’t actually tried one him/herself.
- Other lawyers respect this person as well as clients do and consider him or her an integral part of their team before bringing them on board full-time. You may want to check references from former bosses and colleagues before hiring anyone new; if possible, talk directly with some of these references too! Also don’t forget about Linkedin!
Stay in Touch and Keep Clients Up to Date
- Keep clients informed of any changes. Clients may be confused or disoriented when they learn that a partner has left the law firm and will likely have many questions. It’s important that you stay in touch with clients and keep them informed about any important changes or developments at the law firm.
- Make sure clients know how to contact you. Clients will want to reach out with questions, concerns, and feedback on their cases and they’ll likely want answers right away. So make sure they know the best (or only) way for them to get hold of you: by phone? Email? Text message? If possible, give them all three options so as not to leave anyone out.
- Ensure clients know how to reach other lawyers at the firm who will continue handling their matters after your departure; this could include another lawyer from within your practice area or another department altogether (for example real estate).
Conclusion
If you are trying to retain clientele after an ownership change in your law firm, there are some simple steps you can take to ensure that they remain with you. The first step is to inform clients of the change in ownership and leadership of the firm. Then ask them if they want to remain with the firm or look for another one. Next, make sure any new lawyer will meet client expectations by providing them with information about their background and experience as well as references from previous clients who have worked with them before coming onto this project together. Finally, stay in touch with clients and keep them informed about any important changes or developments at the law firm
FAQ
1. How can I inform all of the firm’s clients about the major changes in the firm?
Using Runsensible CRM, you can email your clients about any changes in the firm on a massive scale. You can even automate this process!
2. Who will take the responsibilities of the partner after they leave?
Partners have a wide range of responsibilities that need to be transferred to someone else after their departure. You can read more about their responsibilities in this article “Partner Responsibilities”.
