Why the Next Five Years Matter More Than the Last Twelve Months: Proactive Succession Planning for Law Firm Business Professionals
Anyone who has spent time in a law firm has seen this scenario unfold. A senior partner announces that they'll be retiring at the end of the year. A long-serving CMO or COO quietly shares that they are leaving for another opportunity. Within days, the firm is scrambling, clients are calling with questions, internal teams are unsure who owns what, and leadership is trying to stitch together a plan that should have been in motion years earlier.
Conversations about succession planning have long centered on attorneys. Yet far less attention is paid to the transitions of essential business professionals (CMBDOs, COOs, CHROs, pricing leaders, technology directors, LPAs, among many others), even though their departures can be equally destabilizing. They hold institutional knowledge, influence operational continuity, and often serve as strategic advisors to leadership teams. When they leave abruptly or without much planning, the impact reverberates throughout the entire firm.
After more than 20 years in the legal industry, I've watched this pattern unfold more times than I'd like. And as I begin to think seriously about my own "what's next," I see even more clearly that succession is not an event, it's a process. When we wait until the final year to start planning, we create avoidable stress and potentially lose institutional knowledge that took decades to build.
Building Your Five-Year Runway
The most effective approach is to think in terms of a five-year strategic runway. Five years may sound like a long time. Yet it passes quickly in a fast-paced environment, allowing enough time to introduce successors thoughtfully, shift responsibilities gradually, and align both the business and the human aspects of the transition.
Preparing the Next Generation of Leaders
For business professionals, a five-year runway begins with an honest examination of potential successors. This is not about finding a clone of the current leader, but about identifying individuals with the aptitude, respect, and interest in the role to step into greater responsibilities. Often, these individuals are already quietly acting as informal leaders, being sought out for advice and taking ownership of outcomes. Once identified, they should receive high-visibility assignments that allow them to demonstrate their judgment in front of partners and executive leaders, while still operating in a relatively low-risk environment. Formal leadership training, coaching, or mentoring can also support their growth during this stage.
Visibility is a critical piece. It isn't enough for the current leader to believe a successor is ready; leadership needs to see that person in action and build their own confidence. Over time, the successor should be the one presenting strategic updates, co-presenting in key meetings, and representing the function in cross-departmental initiatives. As this happens, colleagues begin to view them as a natural point of contact.
It's very common in law firms for a senior business professional to become the sole gatekeeper for budgets, vendor contracts, performance reviews, and strategic decisions. While this may be efficient in the short term, it becomes a liability during a transition. In the last two years of the runway, non-mission-critical decision-making should be delegated wherever possible, and the successor should be empowered to lead a major process such as the annual budgeting cycle or departmental planning. This sends a clear signal to the team and the broader firm about where future leadership lies and provides the successor with invaluable experience.
Communicating Your Next Step with Confidence
The goal is to frame your future transition as a strategic act of leadership, not avoiding responsibility. Instead of saying, "I'll be retiring in a few years," which can sound ambiguous, consider a more intentional message:
"I want to give the firm a long runway so we can build a thoughtful transition plan; one that protects the team, maintains momentum, and sets up the next leader for success. My commitment is to stay fully engaged during this period, focusing my energy on the initiatives that most affect our firm's long-term growth."
This reframing accomplishes three critical things:
It positions you as a dedicated firm leader, while also planning for the future.
It highlights your loyalty to the firm, which keeps leadership invested in your participation.
It clarifies that early communication strengthens, not weakens, the transition process.
Bonus note: This is a best practice that your attorneys can and should emulate.
Once the initial conversation happens, clarity becomes your best protection against being boxed out. Outline the value you intend to contribute during the runway: the initiatives you will continue leading, the areas where your judgment remains essential, and the places where you plan to hand off responsibility gradually. When you set these expectations early, others are less likely to fill the vacuum prematurely.
Equally important is making the case that transitions fail when leaders are pushed aside too early. The message becomes clear: staying fully involved is not for your benefit but for the firm's stability.
Designing a Smooth Transition
Your team and others in the firm are highly attuned to shifts in tone, access, and attention. They will sense a transition long before it is formally announced. Once a plan is reasonably defined, the firm should communicate that a transition is planned, provide a general time frame, and make it clear that a process is underway to support continuity. Direct reports and key leaders should hear this from the person involved and from firm leadership, not through hallway rumors. Ideally, this level of transparency begins three years before the actual handoff.
Most people who have dedicated decades to a firm want to leave having contributed something that will endure: a system, a program, a shift in firm culture, a client initiative. One powerful way to shape this is through a final, strategic project chosen with intention. It might involve implementing a new client intake process, developing a business development/sales initiative, institutionalizing a client feedback process, completing a major practice group integration, or building a structured mentoring program. What matters is that it fits the firm's long-term needs and that the successor is deeply involved in leading it. When the person eventually steps away, the project and the successor attached to it stand as a visible embodiment of their impact.
A decades-long career in the legal industry shapes identity as much as it does a résumé. Leaving or significantly changing that role is not just a logistical shift; it is an emotional one. Many people underestimate how disorienting it can feel to step away from the pace, demands, and status of firm life. That is why personal planning needs to run alongside professional planning. Engaging a coach or mentor, testing out new roles such as board service, consulting, teaching, or community involvement, and having honest conversations with family and close colleagues can help transform what might otherwise be a jarring end into a thoughtfully designed "third act."
Planning Your Succession Strategy
Succession planning is often treated as an HR box to check or a problem to solve only when someone hands in a notice. In reality, it is a core business discipline and, at its best, an act of outstanding leadership. For firms, it stabilizes the firm's operational backbone. For the individuals themselves, it creates the space to step into the next phase with purpose rather than panic.
For those who have spent years, sometimes entire careers, inside law firms, the idea of planning our own exit or evolution can feel uncomfortable. Yet that discomfort is precisely why it is so important to start early.
My challenge to you is to take 30 minutes this week to define your own "sunset date." Next, if the date is within the next five years, identify one relationship, responsibility, or area of knowledge that you could start sharing with someone else today. That single act of intentionality is where real succession planning begins, for you, for your successors, and for the future of your firm.
Succession Planning Timeline:
5 Years Out: Identify successor(s); begin their visibility planning
3 Years Out: Begin firmwide communication of intent to retire/exit; increase leadership opportunities for the successor
2 Years Out: Delegate decision-making; successor leads a major process
1 Year Out: Launch final strategic project; personal planning for next steps
Last 6 Months: Formal handoff, knowledge transfer, celebration