Succession Planning at Law Firms: Why It So Often Fails

#Strategy#Leadership

Jul 30, 2026 – Tobias Steinemann

Sooner or later, every partner leaves the firm, whether through retirement, a move to another firm, or a step into an in-house role. What happens at that moment to the client relationship this person has built over the years often determines whether a firm comes through the transition unscathed or loses a key client. And yet succession planning remains one of the most neglected topics in day-to-day firm life.

Would you rather listen to this topic as a podcast? Here's the episode of the "20-Minutes Attorney Business Development Podcast."

Listen to the episode on Spotify

Why a Client Doesn't Simply Belong to the Firm

Many firms assume that clients fundamentally belong to the firm rather than to the individual attorney. But once only one person maintains a genuinely close relationship with the client, that assumption doesn't hold up in practice. Is a client really a firm client if only one person is in contact with them? Usually not.

This becomes especially clear when attorneys switch firms or retire.

At larger firms with a strong culture of shared client management, clients are more likely to stay with the firm. At smaller firms and partnerships, by contrast, attorneys often take their clients with them, because the relationship was never really shared across more than one person.

The Incentive Trap: Why Succession Planning So Often Doesn't Pay Off Financially

On the Attorney Biz Dev Podcast, Bill Burns, Business Development Executive, points to a simple reason why succession planning so often falls by the wayside:

There's no financial incentive to take it seriously.

In his view, compensation models at law firms are mostly geared toward the current year. Anyone who invests time today in handing off a client relationship, when the payoff won't show up for another three years, is giving up short-term returns.

Two approaches can help correct this misaligned incentive. First, a split-billing model, where both the departing and the incoming attorney receive credit for the work done during the transition. Second, a targeted reward for a successfully completed handoff, for instance if a client actually stays with the firm after a defined three-year transition period. That gives both people involved a genuine stake in making the handoff succeed, not just the firm as a whole.

When Clients Themselves Become an Obstacle

Internal incentives aren't the only thing that makes succession planning harder. Clients themselves contribute to the problem too, often without realizing it. Many companies have strict rules about how work may be billed, and aren't willing to pay for a second person getting up to speed. From the client's perspective, that's understandable: paying two people for the same work initially looks like unnecessary duplication.

But this is exactly where an opportunity lies. A firm that doesn't bill for the transition period, and instead frames it as an investment in the long-term relationship, signals to clients that it takes the continuity of the relationship seriously. Clients built on a genuine partnership, rather than a purely commodity transaction, come through these transitions far more often.

The Path from Team Member to Trusted Advisor

Does a client already trust the successor? Can the relationship actually make the transition?

Trust between a client and an attorney doesn't come from a single handoff, it builds gradually, over an extended period of time. A few milestones that can be used to measure this progress:

Has the younger attorney already worked on matters for this client at all?
Have they attended meetings, calls, or sessions with the client, and gotten to know the client's way of working, needs, and goals?
Has this person started to take an active role in those meetings, or are they only there in a physical sense?
Has the client been visited on site?
Is this person increasingly being contacted directly when the client has a question?
Are they eventually being brought in not just for routine tasks, but for strategic questions and advice?

Anyone who deliberately works through these stages builds a relationship that actually survives a handoff.

Culture Beats Strategy

Succession planning can't be pinned to a single conversation shortly before retirement. It has to be part of a firm's culture, not a task that only gets addressed once a departure is imminent. A culture that fosters collaboration and shared responsibility for clients from the outset lays the groundwork for handoffs to succeed at all.

For the departing attorney in particular, it also matters that they can see the practice they built will live on. Not everyone wants to pass something on. But for many, it matters that a life's work doesn't simply end once the partnership no longer exists on paper.

The Right Time to Involve the Client

There's no one-size-fits-all answer for when a client should be brought into succession planning. If there's a fixed date by which an attorney is stepping away from the matter, a natural moment usually presents itself to have that conversation and gradually shift the focus to the younger attorney. If there's no such fixed date, that moment has to be actively sought out.

It's also important to realistically assess the current state of the matter. If the matter happens to be in a particularly demanding phase, such as an ongoing proceeding, it may be necessary for the experienced attorney to stay involved longer. Succession planning is therefore always a case-by-case decision, not a rigid formula.

Conclusion: Succession Planning Is Cultural Work, Not Just an Administrative Task

A client is only truly a firm client if more than one person maintains a genuine relationship with them.
Without a compensation structure that also rewards multi-year transitions, for example through split billing or retention incentives, succession planning often remains a hollow commitment.
Trust builds gradually, through participation in meetings, on-site visits, and genuine strategic contributions, not through a single handoff shortly before departure.
Succession planning only succeeds in the long run if it's part of the firm's culture, rather than becoming a topic only once a departure is already imminent.

The Attorney BizDev Podcast

Tobias from HeadStarterz and Bill Burns from Porter Wright Morris & Arthur discussed this topic on their podcast. Further episodes of the podcast cover the following subjects: