Planning Ahead Guide

Planning Ahead – Establishing an Advance Exit Plan to Protect Your Clients’ Interests in the Event of Your Disability, Retirement or Death

It is not easy to think about circumstances that could render you unable to continue practicing law.  Unfortunately, accidents, illness, disability, planned or unplanned retirement, and untimely death are events which do occur. Under any of these circumstances, your clients’ interests, as well as your own, must be protected.

This PDF of the New York State Bar Association Planning Ahead Guide, Third Edition is provided to all attorneys as a courtesy of the New York State Bar Association and outlines the steps a lawyer must take to protect his or her clients in the event of a sudden inability to continue in practice. The Committee on Law Practice Continuity created the guide in 2005 to help attorneys establish an advance exit plan in the event of disability, retirement or death. The Committee on Law Practice Continuity became a part of the Law Practice Management Committee in 2011.  The LPM Committee updated the guide in 2016 and again in 2023

Download the entire 2023 book as a PDF (Free)

For best viewing, we recommend downloading the PDF to your desktop and opening the file using Adobe Acrobat.

The Planning Ahead Guide: Establish an Advance Exit Plan to Protect Your Clients’ Interests in the Event of Your Disability, Retirement or Death

  • Chapter One: Planning for Disability, Retirement or Death
  • Chapter Two: Sale of a Law Practice
  • Chapter Three: Closing Another Lawyer’s Practice
  • Chapter Four: Issues of Impairment
  • Chapter Five: Additional Resources and References (Reference Guides and Checklists, Forms, Laws and Regulations, FAQs)

50+ Section

Click Here

Practice Resources: Selling Your Practice

Click Here