Planning for Retirement at an International Law Firm

Why Connor?   

As experts in retirement planning and career transition, our client recognised that Connor understands senior individuals, and the common challenges, expectations and other dynamics impacting Partners and Senior Colleagues.

Our client recognised that we appreciate the impact of retiring from a Partner role. We have experience providing transition coaching to individuals who have 20-30 years tenure in their role and that the change can be somewhat of an identity shock. We match our consultants, accordingly, ensuring strong rapport and an alignment on experience, thereby ensuring we can deliver a peer-to-peer service.

Our approach

We worked with the client to understand their needs as an organisation. They were keenly aware that many of their senior people joined the company at the beginning of their careers and have invested a large proportion of their working life for the firm. This meant that the transition to retirement, or getting ready for a new way of life, was likely to be a significant change.

We discovered that there would be unique aspects to consider, including how the programme was launched, its language, style, and content. From this we designed the ‘Preparing for the Future’ Partner Programme. The programme consisted of workshops and coaching support to help Partners begin to consider the options available to them in the later stage of their career – whether this be preparation for a change in lifestyle, widening business interests, or creating a portfolio career. It was important to recognise that many would have plans in place but might not have considered the emotional and psychological change that they would face and how to support them to consider this.

What we delivered

We delivered a bespoke programme which formed part of our client’s core development offering. The programme was offered to all international partners who are 2 years from their retirement. The programme consisted of three virtual workshops on topics including:

Participants could also take advantage of 1-1 coaching with an external transition coach to help put their specific plans into action, in the year following the programme.

After the first cohort, we connected back in with the client to review the programme and how it had been received; from this we found that the programme had indeed been very well received. We realised that we could make further improvements by changing how we asked people to prepare and how the programme was presented. These tweaks resulted in even better engagement and feedback.

The results

• 100% of delegates found the content extremely or very relevant to them.
• 87% would recommend the programme.
• The programme was described as, “extremely helpful in clarifying your thinking about how to approach retirement, the questions to ask of yourself and looking at retirement in a positive way.”

The Senior L&D Business Partner at our client’s law firm commented:

Working with Connor has been a very collaborative experience. They took the time to understand our needs at the outset and were happy to work with us to make changes as a result of the feedback we received from the participants. We are pleased that the programme continues to receive positive feedback and we know it is helping our partners prepare successfully for this significant career transition.

Delegates of the programme added the following:

“It was thought provoking and well-structured. The presenters were engaging, and it was fun.”

 “Good to connect with others in a similar position and we had some great conversations.”

“It was good-hearted, good-spirited, good-natured and kind.” 

 “I would do it again.” 

 “Do it, it provokes good thinking.”

 “Approach it with an open mind – taking time out of your diary to give you head room to think about the future and having a safe space to share thoughts with colleagues in a similar situation is really worthwhile.”

 “Well worth it. It gives you the space to think about the topic and great to speak with colleagues in a similar position.”