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Portland鈥檚 legal community recently lost two esteemed colleagues with the deaths of Brian Booth, a founding partner at Tonkon Torp, and Bill Mehlhaf, a shareholder at Markowitz, Herbold, Glade & Mehlhaf. Their passing is a reminder that every law firm should have a succession or continuity plan in place.

Sheila Blackford, a practice management advisor with the Oregon State Bar鈥檚 Professional Liability Fund, says such planning is a growing issue nationwide as the baby boomer generation ages and an ever-expanding crop of solos open shop.

Oregon law firms are not required to disclose whether they have a succession plan, so there鈥檚 no real way to know how many have taken the steps outlined in the Oregon Rule of Professional Conduct 1.15 Protecting Client Property.

As Blackford points out, succession planning is a delicate area because it forces people to 鈥渃onfront their inevitable demise.鈥� She likens it to the fact that most people know they should have a will, but many procrastinate or avoid it all together. In both cases, action most often gets taken when matters become urgent.

鈥淐ertainly we get lots of calls when a lawyer knows that he or she will need to plan just in case their health problem worsens or if they are having a crisis of some kind,鈥� she says. 鈥淥thers attorneys know to call us to alert us to a situation where some lawyer is seriously ill or suddenly deceased.鈥�

The bar鈥檚 effort to educate lawyers about succession planning begins with law school students. Blackford talks with students about it during campus visits, and includes the topic in a week-long practice management course she teaches at the University of Oregon鈥檚 law school.

New lawyers receive 鈥�A Guide to Protecting Your Clients’ Interests in the Event of Your Disability or Death鈥� during their swearing in ceremony, and the message arises multiple times during the Learning the Ropes program for new lawyers. In addition, the bar offers myriad forms, checklists and continuing education courses on the topic.

Among the advice the bar offers solo attorneys is to select a 鈥渂uddy鈥� or 鈥渁ssisting attorney鈥� who can help during an emergency. This includes returning clients鈥� files or transferring them to another lawyer, and storing closed files. Blackford also encourages attorneys to consider what will happen to the trust account they are required to maintain if they are the only signer on the account.