Success in Succession Planning

Success in Succession Planning

For many managing partners, considering succession planning is akin to writing a will.  We know it is a sensible and prudent thing to do but it reminds us that our time is limited.  We put it off for as long as we can.

A large corporate may actively groom a successor for the CEO’s role or at least develop two or three candidates from which to select a successor.  But the structure and operation of a law firm is very different from that of a large corporation.  In general, law firms elect their managing partner, and as this is one of the few matters on which partners still have a vote, they have a strong aversion to any Soviet-style, put-up ballot of one approved candidate.  Indeed in 2002 when a new managing partner was being elected at Clifford Chance, Peter Cornell won after making it clear that he was not the preferred choice of the incumbent management team.  More recently, late last year when Lovells was electing a new senior partner it appeared that the managing partner endorsed a losing candidate.  The managing partner has now announced that she is standing down!

Given the difficulty of anointing a successor how should a law firm go about providing for succession planning?  I believe that this involves a number of related steps over a number of years.

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