Succession Planning Client Handovers
Law 360 recently published "How To Avoid A Client Handover Catastrophe", which deals with succession planning for law firms. Jill Huse was quoted in this article (see excerpt below). Another strategy is to play up the unique benefits you bring to the table, which in some cases may be the generational perspective that comes with your relative youth — particularly with so many companies also getting younger at the top, according to Society 54 LLC partner Jill Huse.
“One of the key things I’ve seen over the last two years is the discrepancy between the age range of clients and law firms,” Huse says. “A lot of the CEOs of Fortune 1000 companies are Gen Xers, and they think and communicate different and don’t have the same values as a baby boomer who’s about to retire.”
Huse says that once those introductions have occurred, it is imperative that junior attorneys maintain an open line of communication with the departing partner and never allow the elder attorney to feel as though he or she is being shut out.
“It’s very important to keep the senior partner aware of everything that’s happening with the client,” Huse says. “You’ve got to keep them in loop, and you can’t start doing your own thing. Otherwise you’re going to lose trust — and not just with that senior partner, because he’s going to tell other people.”
This is doubly important because many clients will be reluctant to do business with a firm that simply swaps out attorneys with no concern for continuity.