Related Posts
Should I shave my beard for MBA interviews?
Bowl Leader
More Posts
Sea of thieves anyone?
Any Porsche consulting friends out there?
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
I don’t know if that’s possible, honestly. I have been in this position and have had friends that have also been in the same position. I took business away from a firm 11 years ago and the owner is still incredibly vindictive. It has made me extremely picky about lateral moves going forward to make sure the position was worth burning those bridges
How has the vindictiveness impacted your life and career?
Whether or not you burn bridges depends mainly on the personalities you work with and the types of clients you service. If your firm has a large number of midsized clients, then a few going with you shouldn't be an issue (especially since it is entirely their choice). If you take one of the firm's main clients, then it could be more of an issue, but if you are the only attorney working on those clients, then its on the other partners for not maintaining their relationships.
As far as personalities go, some will be vindictive and others won't. For us, I know that when attorneys have left, if we receive an email from a client directed towards them, we will often reach out to the attorney to see if they want to handle before we reply. This goes for institutional clients as well, if that attorney maintained the relationship.
If you have a good relationship with your partners, then when you tell them you are leaving, maybe you can work together to craft an email to those clients telling them you are leaving and giving them the choice of who to work with.
Thanks! I have a very good relationship with my partners now. The reason for leaving is more business related than personal. So hopefully we can work together to send some correspondence to clients informing them of the departure and letting them know their options. I believe this is even suggested in some ethics opinions. In reality, I bet the email drafting process is very awkward.
I think there might be ethical rules about when you can contact clients about a new firm. So you should check that. Also, when you decide to leave, make sure you have all the things and contacts you need before you let anyone know. We had a NEP give notice and during their notice period they were soliciting firm clients. Once the firm found out, the NEP was walked out of the office that day.
See ABA Formal Opinion 489 (December 2019) providing guidance on lawyers leaving a firm. https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/news/2019/12/aba_formal_opinion_489.pdf
It's going to depend for sure. I was an equity partner at a mid-sized firm that did insurance defense work. I was at my old firm for 9+ years, but had a commute that was 1+ hours each way on a good day. I had the opportunity to start a practice in my hometown, 4 miles from my house, so I took it. All of my old partners were gracious about it to my face, but after I left, one of my former partners seriously stabbed me in the back. We have since mended our relationship to some extent, but it's not the same and it caught me totally off guard.
I knew I'd have some adjusters/carriers that would want to send their work with me and the reality of it was, they weren't going to leave their work at my old firm if I wasn't there, so that made the transition a bit easier for me as most of my old partners realized this.
In my home state, the Rules of Professional Responsibility strictly limit how and when it is officially communicated to your firm's clients that you're leaving, so be mindful of those. I would recommend sitting down with your current partners and creating a game plan on how and when your departure will be officially communicated to clients. For a number of reasons, your current firm may want to control the timing on the flow of that info.
That said, the reality is most attorneys who leave a firm reach out to clients beforehand. If you're going to do it, do not to do it writing. Reach out in person or on the phone.
Good luck!
Thank you for the good advice! One of the reasons that I am considering leaving the firm is the general lack of mentorship or even an interest in providing mentorship. I have been at the firm for nearly a decade and was essentially just thrown to the wolves from the beginning. Somehow I survived….
It is amazing that I have gotten better mentorship from this thread than I have ever received from my own firm and the more senior partners.
The general sense that I am getting from everyone is that I should try to act ethically and maturely. I plan to do just that. However, I should also have everything lined up since it will likely get nasty and vindictive at some point.
Thanks to all for helping me address the situation with open eyes!
How big is your current firm? Smaller firms tend to lead to ugly divorces.