ICLE's Publications Director, Cindy Huss, retired at the beginning of the year and she is much missed. This is her last blog post:
As I was thinking about my own retirement, I looked into what other lawyers do. It turns out that a lot of lawyers do not retire--they work until they no longer can. Today, more than 14,000 of the lawyers licensed in Michigan are age 60 or older. That is 40.2% of the bar membership. Over 2,000 licensed lawyers are age 76 or older. Of course, some of these lawyers might not be practicing full time and may have even “retired” from their firm. According to a 2007 Altman-Weil survey, 61% of the lawyers surveyed plan to continue working in some capacity after retirement. Of those, 48% will continue to practice law.
There are risks, however, both for the firm and for the clients, if the lawyer is suddenly unable to practice law. The State Bar leadership is focused on addressing those risks with solutions such as succession plans. ICLE has resources that can help with succession planning.
I was fortunate after practicing law for over 20 years to work at ICLE for another 15 years. It has been an honor and pleasure to work with the hundreds of lawyers who volunteered their time to work with ICLE to provide award-winning continuing legal education to Michigan lawyers. It has also been a joy to work with the dedicated and caring ICLE staff. But now it’s on to the next phase where my motto will be: I will do what I want to do when I want to do it—or not!