Protect Your Investment, Your Clients & Your Family by Selling Your Law Firm

Many attorneys practicing on their own assume that when they retire, they will simply close the doors of their firm forever. But closing the door on all those years spent building your practice isn’t your only option, and it’s probably not your best one. Selling a law practice can ensure you receive a return on the time and resources you invested in your practice.

Why Consider Selling Your Law Practice?

There are many benefits to selling your law practice:

• Selling lets you recoup some of your investment in your practice and enhance your financial security during retirement.
• Selling allows you to choose a successor you trust to take care of your clients so you can be confident they will be well cared for after you retire.
• Selling protects your family in the event of your death or incapacity. With the firm safely in the hands of the buyer, your family won’t have to scramble to figure out how to deal with your practice and clients.
• If you have staff and associates, selling can provide them continuity of employment.

In short, selling can benefit you, your family, your clients, and your staff — not to mention a potential buyer who can step into a valuable practice rather than having to build their own from scratch.

Identify the Best Option When Selling Your Law Firm

If you’re now convinced of the merits of selling your practice, your next decision is how, and to whom. Roy can help you evaluate your options, so you can retire with confidence.

Associate Buyout

Do you have an associate within your firm with good business judgment and marketing sense? If so, you might consider an associate buyout, which is a popular choice for attorneys heading towards retirement.

Yet, even if you believe an associate has the desire to take on your firm, you must dig deeper to ensure they’re the right fit. The traits that make a good associate don’t necessarily make a good successor. Roy will help you objectively assess your candidate’s skills, background and experience so you can trust that your firm will be in good hands.

Learn More About Associate Buyouts

Transitioning to a Third Party

Solo attorneys or those without an associate on staff often choose to sell their practices to a third party. If you want to slow down but you’re not quite ready to retire outright, you could become “of counsel” to allow for a more gradual transition and give the new owner time to settle in.

But you can’t count on the right buyer to magically appear at the right time. You need to position your practice for sale, market your practice to gain interest, and find and screen candidates, among other critical steps. That’s a challenge if you have never done it before, and especially if you are still busy running your practice. That’s where Roy can help. As an experienced coach who has helped dozens of attorneys sell their practices, he can outline your next steps and guide you through each one.

“Roy did an excellent job finding potential buyers. I greatly appreciated the vetting that he did so I didn't have to spend time assessing them. To be honest, when I first got the idea of selling my estate planning practice, I was not that optimistic that the concept would work. Sure enough, it did.”
—Solo Practitioner, Burnsville, MN

Learn More About Transitioning to a Third Party

Downsizing or Restructuring

If you can’t imagine what your life would be like without practicing law or if your practice is too small to sell, downsizing or restructuring might be the best option for you. Selling your firm isn’t always the best choice.

Learn More About Downsizing Your Practice

Get Help Valuing Your Law Firm

You can’t sell your law practice until you know what it’s worth. Through years of experience as a coach and work as an attorney, Roy knows what makes a law firm valuable. He will use that knowledge to successfully appraise your practice, so you can price it to sell without leaving money on the table.

Learn More About Valuing Your Practice

Get the Help You Need to Sell Your Law Practice

If you are still not sure of the right way to exit from practice, you don’t have to figure it out alone; Roy Ginsburg can help. To learn more about selling a law practice or to start planning for your retirement today, give Roy a call at 612-524-5837 or connect online.