The 5-Year Handoff
designing your exit before it designs you
Join us for our next free 30-minute webinar at 2100 UTC (1600 EST / 1300 PST) 12 March 2025, when we introduce a clear, practical framework to help you design a transition that strengthens your law firm rather than destabilizes it. Click here to register.
Succession isn’t a last-year decision. It’s a five-year design process.
Yet many lawyers delay the discussion until stress, burnout, conflict, or changing personal circumstances forces action. Other lawyers might have given some thought to what will happen when they leave their firm, but have been busy with the day-to-day demands of their professional lives to give success much serious consideration.
Good intentions and waiting to “cross that bridge when I come to it” are not good enough.
The 5-Year Handoff shifts succession from improvisation and, in worst cases, emergency planning to intentional, well-informed leadership transition. It addresses the difficult succession issues, the ones that many law firms try to avoid — such as buyout, ownership, transfer of management responsibilities, culture, governance, identity, and legacy — before they can produce a crisis in which options are limited and intense urgency can jeopardize the future survival of the firm.
Wherever you are on the succession timeline — whether you’ve never thought seriously about it, whether you’re five to seven years away from retirement, whether you’re quietly exploring options, or whether you’re ready to hang the “Gone Fishing” sign on the door tomorrow — there are questions you should already be asking today and plans you should start making tomorrow.
What we will cover in our 30-minute live webinar
Why succession must begin earlier than most lawyers think
The hidden governance and ownership tensions that surface late
How to transfer authority without destabilizing culture
The identity shifts no one talks about
The structural , intellectual, and emotional dimensions of a successful transition
Practical next steps for your career and your law firm
Who should attend
Founders
Senior partners
Managing Partners
Lawyers within 0 to 7 years of retirement
Lawyers who haven’t even thought about retirement yet
Our hosts
Dave Gold
Dave Gold is a former law firm founder turned lawyer-to-lawyer coach, helping attorneys navigate succession, identity shifts, and life beyond full-time practice.
He blends practical business transition strategy with deeper work around alignment, purpose, and the interllectual and emotional dimensions of leaving well.
For more information about Dave’s expertise and experience, go to www. davegold.com.
Norman Clark
Norman K. Clark is a founder of Walker Clark LLC and an internationally recognized authority on law firm governance, profitability, and leadership strategy.
With more than 50 years in the profession — as a trial lawyer, judge, professor, and global legal services executive — he brings unmatched depth to the structural side of succession and transition.
Contact Norman Clark using our secure e-mail link.
Join us for our next free 30-minute webinar 2100 UTC (1600 EST / 1300 PST) 12 March 2025, when we introduce a clear, practical framework to help you design a transition that strengthens your law firm rather than destabilizes it. Click here to register.