Press

Retirement on Trial: A Special Event in the Lawyer Transition and Retirement Series

Written for ABA, Voice of Experience By Robert Henry Louis

February 2025

Over the past few years, the Financial Services and Retirement Planning Committee of the Senior Lawyers Division has presented webinars covering many topics in its Lawyer Transition and Retirement Series. The series was originally called the Lawyer Retirement Starter Series. The change in name represents a change in the way we hope lawyers will approach the planning process in later years. For a variety of reasons, the term “retirement” seems to conjure up a period of idleness, a removal from the busy world of people who are doing and achieving. It also suggests a loss of status and maybe even identity. It is these concerns and fears that stop lawyers from even considering doing things differently as they get older.

By adding the word “Transition” to the series title, we have striven to convince lawyers that there are many possible futures after decades of hard work in legal practice. For those who so desire, it can mean continuing to practice in the same way. But it can also mean practicing in different settings or different places. It can mean using many years of legal experience in a non-legal setting, such as working with a nonprofit organization. It can also mean stepping away from active employment to participate in activities that were avocations in earlier years: teaching, both legal and non-legal subjects; hobbies such as gardening, music, writing, and sports, in which one can participate more avidly and toward greater achievement. And, certainly, it can include bar association work. That seems to be a key aspect of fulfilling later life for many lawyers-the need to continue achieving, even in small ways—becoming the pickleball champion of the neighborhood. It is these opportunities and many others that we are trying to present to lawyers in the Series. Along with that, there is another aspect of life in later years that seems to be most enjoyable: the opportunity to decide among various interests at one’s own pace, as well as to decide, sometimes, that a break from meetings and other obligations is a good and healthy choice, both mentally and physically. As an overall theme, the ABA is focusing on wellness for lawyers, and the planning of a healthy and enriching later career and retirement is an important element of lifelong wellness. If we can convince lawyers to give thought to the variety of potential futures they might enjoy, we will consider the Series a success.

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EVERY DAY IS SUNDAY: WHY DO SO MANY LAWYERS PUT OFF THE PROBLEM OF RETIREMENT?

Written for Lawyers Financial by Chris Goldie

December 2023

When Vancouver-based personal injury lawyer Steve Herman hit his mid-fifties, he realized retirement wasn’t far beyond the horizon anymore. This wasn’t a pleasant thought. Herman believes his mother’s early retirement from teaching triggered a downward spiral for her health. “She subsequently went into 20 years of anxiety and depression. And I think it was because she lost her purpose in life,” Herman says.

Herman found financial advice and practice management advice, but nothing on “navigating the challenges of leaving your career, and specifically a legal career.” Replies to his casual inquiries about his peers’ retirement plans were muted.

Sensing a need, Herman created a retirement seminar for lawyers in June 2016. Three people attended. He tried again in 2018 and five trickled in. But when he teamed up with the Courthouse Library Society of BC and moved it online in September 2019, 120 people found an hour to spare—when logging in anonymously.

So, Herman did the next logical thing. He made a movie.