Executive Director's Report • May 2025

Succession Planning Made Easy

This month’s issue of the Texas Bar Journal is all about transitions in the Practice of Law: transitions between jobs or areas of law during your years of practice and the transition out of practice. With that in mind, it seems like a good time to update you on your State Bar of Texas’ offerings related to the latter: succession planning.

When I last wrote about it here in September 2023, we had recently launched the Succession Planning Toolkit for members. Created by a collaboration between the State Bar Law Practice Management Committee and State Bar staff, the toolkit takes attorneys through a series of steps, starting with designating a custodian attorney who can help out in the case of an attorney’s unplanned cessation of practice due to illness or other emergencies. This process only takes a few minutes via an online form.

The toolkit also gives instructions on managing files, including retention, transition, and closing of client files. And it helps with the task of closing IOLTA accounts. In addition to helping with unplanned cessation of practice, the Succession Planning Toolkit includes a comprehensive guide for attorneys who know when they want to close their practices, with tips for winding down a practice and preparing its sale.

Since the toolkit’s 2023 launch, the Law Practice Management Program has been sending speakers to local bar associations and other groups around the state and offering free CLE and ethics credit to those attending the presentations on succession planning.

Members have responded. To date, the toolkit’s webpages have been accessed more than 6,000 times.

In recent months, the Law Practice Management team has been busy making the Succession Planning Toolkit even better. This past November, the team released a second edition of the toolkit. It features more robust content in all chapters, with the most significant changes made to those on transition planning and sudden cessation. The online navigation also has been simplified to make access to the forms and resources for each chapter easier.

More upgrades are in the works. The team is planning to add practical tips and lessons learned that they have collected from attorneys who have served as custodians to help those considering taking on the role.

You can help us spread the word to more members about this great resource. If you’d like to have a State Bar speaker give a free CLE presentation on succession planning to your local or affinity bar, whether in person or remotely, please contact us. You can reach our succession planning program administrator, Dean Schaffer, at dean.schaffer@texasbar.com. For general questions about law practice management resources, contact the Law Practice Management Program at 512- 427-1300 or lpm@texasbar.com. And be sure to check out the second edition of the Succession Planning Toolkit at texasbar.com/successiontoolkit.

Sincerely,

TREY APFFEL
Executive Director, State Bar of Texas
Editor in Chief, Texas Bar Journal