Attorneys emphasize planning early for smoother retirement

Dave Coots is not ready to retire.

At 83 years old, Coots has been practicing law for more than 50 years, and he still enjoys it.

But these days, he finds he’s spending more time away from the office where his name is on the door.

In 1978, Coots and Steve Henke came together to form their two-man practice in Carmel, which has now grown to 14 attorneys.

Although Henke has since left the practice, Coots still tackles Carmel’s legal needs, albeit on a more relaxed basis.

“My own personal plan is to continue to practice as long as I’m healthy and able — and so long as no judge has told me, ‘Dave, I think you ought to hang it up. You’re nuts.’”

Attorneys of all generations must eventually face the sometimes dreaded next step in their careers: retirement.

For baby boomers, those 60 to 80 years old, it might be time to start developing a plan for hanging up the suit and tie, especially for those practicing in small to midsize firms, according practicing and existing attorneys who spoke to The Indiana Lawyer.

“You better start planning yesterday, if not before,” said Ted Waggoner, a retired Rochester-based attorney.

Waggoner retired from his practice a few years ago, when he turned 70, and is now encouraging other senior attorneys to begin the succession planning process.

Succession planning involves the strategies businesses use to keep their operations moving as their top leadership eases out of the profession.

Unlike large firms, which tend to have formal retirement procedures already in place, small and midsize law firms typically follow four succession paths: close up shop, sell their practice, transition to younger lawyers or merge with another firm, Waggoner said.

Waggoner said his own firm opted for the third option, though it requires the most planning.

When he was about 45 years old and his senior partner was about 65, Waggoner said they recruited several young lawyers to train and raise in the firm to make a transition as they entered retirement.

“But you can’t do that in five years or three years because a young lawyer going to work for a 70- or 75-year-old lawyer has a significantly different frame of mind than somebody going to work for a 45- or 50-year-old [lawyer],” Waggoner said. “They see a partnership in the practice and building up of a long-term asset there, and it works very well.”

A challenge

In 2015, The Indiana Lawyer published its Practicing Law survey, which found that 38% of respondents listed transition or succession planning as the greatest challenge to their organization’s viability. Managing costs while protecting service quality was the only issue to outscore it, at 42%.

Today, it still seems to be a concern.

Some of the challenges that come with succession planning lie in the difficulty of bringing it up in the first place.

“There’s a concern by senior attorneys for their staff, rightly so, and kind of their fear of losing staff or creating undue stress if they find out if the attorney is considering retirement,” said Don Hopper, a former lawyer who spent the latter half of his career helping firms develop succession plans.

Another challenge can come with transitioning clients to different attorneys.

“Law practices are built on relationships,” Hopper said. “When relationships are threatened or they’re potentially going to end, then that opens up all kinds of possibilities for clients going elsewhere.”

The Indiana Rules of Professional Conduct outline several requirements that firms and departing attorneys must consider when planning for an attorney’s departure.

For those attorneys looking to leave the game and sell their practice, Rule 1.17 sets out several conditions they must first meet, including giving notice to their clients about possible case transfers and specific requirements for who can purchase the firm.

To prevent many of the issues that come with retiring, the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission recommends lawyers implement robust employment policies that “enumerate procedures for orderly notification and transition in anticipation of lawyers departing,” according to a 2025 report.

Waggoner also pointed attorneys to the Indiana State Bar Association’s retirement and succession planning guide, which bar members can access. It includes tips and resources for lawyers looking to leave their practice.

An aging field

It’s no secret that the legal field is an older population compared with other occupations.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median age of lawyers was 46 years old in 2023 — the latest year for which the data is available. That’s four years older than the median age for all U.S. workers, which was 42.

That wasn’t always the case. In 1980, the median age for lawyers was 39.

But today, among all 386 occupations evaluated, lawyers ranked 66th on the list from oldest to youngest, based on median age, according to the American Bar Association.

One reason could be that it takes longer to become a lawyer than it does to begin working in other occupations.

The majority of law students enroll when they are between the ages of 23 and 26, according to the Law School Admission Council. About 1 in every 5 first-year law students is 27 years old or older.

That means that a majority of law school students in a three-year program won’t begin their official legal careers until they are in their mid 20s or close to 30 years old.

In the rest of the U.S. population, 17% of all adults aged 18-24 years old are done with schooling, at least for now, and are in the workforce, according to Brookings, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan think tank.

The other factor leading to an older occupation could just be that lawyers tend to love what they do — and don’t want to give up their careers.

“The work is interesting, and you’re helping people solve problems, which for a lot of us, that’s why we got into the law,” Waggoner said. “It’s what keeps it interesting.”

Waggoner encouraged attorneys who have not started formulating a retirement plan to treat it like a vacation and just “set that date.”

“If you say, ‘I’m going to take a vacation sometime next summer,’ well, you don’t have any plans,” Waggoner said. But “if you put a date and say, ‘I’m going to take a vacation July 4th week,’ then all of a sudden you’re anticipating it, and you start preparing.”

Motivation

Although Coots might not be ready to quit for good, he said he has started introducing his firm’s younger attorneys to his clients, building relationships among them for when the time does come for him to retire.

Practicing law has given Coots, like many others, a lively purpose: to help others.

“What keeps me coming to the office every day is knowing the fact that someone is going to reach out and rely on me or ask me to help them in some way, which I appreciate, the ability being able to do that,” he said.

And unless a judge or client tells him it’s time to move on, he’s going to keep on working for his community.•