We recently launched our new member benefit, Practice HQ. Organized by the lifecycle of a law practice, this one-stop microsite houses together high-quality practice information in one place.

Once you've opened your firm, developed a marketing and retention strategy to build your client base, learned the ins and outs of managing and protecting, the final stage of your firm's lifecycle is to ethically wind down. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to succession planning because practices close for many different reasons; sometimes it is planned while other times the circumstances are outside of our control. As a result, the Practice HQ resources geared toward winding down your practice are valuable to members at all stages of their career, whether you're nearing retirement or simply want to prepare for the future. After all, the planning for eventual succession takes place long before any transactions.

Members can dive right in to the Succession Planning Checklist, which provides a broad overview of relevant considerations and common scenarios, and the free online CLE, which is a one-hour seminar designed to make the process more approachable through goal-setting, timeline, and valuation help.

For more circumstance-specific resources, the whitepapers and articles are must-read resources. They cover the ethical implications of closing a practice — it is particularly important to protect your clients' interests throughout the process — as well as how to gradually reduce responsibilities leading up to retirement, establishing a solid financial framework, important considerations for buying or selling a practice, and much more. 

To benefit from these and other resources, log in to the ISBA website and visit Practice HQ today.