MML #057: The Monday Test: What Your Law Firm Is Actually Worth

I had coffee a few weeks back with Roy Ginsburg, a lawyer who spends his days helping other lawyers figure out what their firms are worth when they're ready to sell.

He told me about what he calls "the Monday test."

If you retired on Friday and the phone rang on Monday, would your clients still work with the firm? Would there be anyone there to answer? Would the work continue?

For most solo and small firm lawyers, the gut reaction is "of course not." The firm is me. When I'm gone, it's gone.

But Roy says that doesn’t have to be true. And more importantly, the answer to that Monday question determines whether you've built a business or just created a really demanding job for yourself.

He says the answer is always "it depends." Which is exactly what you tell your clients when they ask you hard legal questions, right?

His job is figuring out what it depends on.

What Actually Creates Value

Your firm doesn't need to be a 50-lawyer operation to have value. Roy works with solo practitioners all the time who've built something transferable.

What makes the difference?

Systems that work without you. Not complicated - just documented. The new client intake process. How files are organized. Which cases you take and which you turn down.

Clients who'd stay with a successor. This matters more in some practice areas than others. If clients hired you because of a specific relationship, that's harder to transfer. If they hired you because they Googled "estate planning attorney near me," that's easier.

Recurring work that doesn't require your specific expertise. Monthly retainers. Ongoing compliance work. Clients who need a lawyer regularly, not just once.

The question isn't whether you're the best lawyer in your firm. Of course you are - you built it. The question is whether the firm still functions on Tuesday morning if you don't show up Monday.

Most lawyers never ask themselves this question until they're 68 and exhausted and ready to be done. By then, the answer is usually "no, this dies with me."

But the lawyers who start asking at 60 or 62  often discover they have options they didn't know existed.

Three Paths Forward (And Why It Matters Now)

When lawyers start thinking about retirement, there are really only three paths:

Sell the firm outright to a younger lawyer or group. Walk away with a check, hand over the keys, be done.

Gradual transition over 3-5 years. Bring someone in, shift clients slowly, reduce your hours, ease into whatever comes next.

Wind it down. Finish your current cases, refer new matters out, close the doors, retire the shingle.

All three are legitimate. But here's what I'm learning: only the first two require your firm to have value without you. And building that kind of value takes time.

Roy mentioned something that caught my attention. Private equity firms are starting to circle the legal profession. They're making calls every week now asking about firms that might be available. Five years ago, he'd get one call a year. Now it's constant.

I'm not saying you should sell to private equity. I'm saying the market is changing. The quiet assumption that your firm dies with you? That's becoming less true.

But none of these options exist if you wait until you're ready to retire to start building transferable value.

The Real Question Hiding Here

I talk to a lot of lawyers in their seventies who are still working full-time. Most of them have plenty of money. Some have $3 million, $5 million, more.

Most of them aren’t working because they need the paycheck.

Rather, they’re working because they can't picture what Monday looks like without the firm.

And I get it. You've been a lawyer for 35 years. That's not just what you do - it's who you are.

But here's what I’d encourage you to consider: if your firm only has value when you're there, you're not free. You're trapped.

The whole point of building something valuable is that it gives you choices. You can sell if you want. You can transition gradually if that feels better. You can even wind it down on your own terms instead of working until you physically can't anymore.

Your firm having value without you isn't a threat to your identity. It's proof that you built something real. Something that outlasts you. Something that serves clients even after you're ready to move on to whatever comes next.

What To Do With This

You don't need to call a business broker tomorrow. You don't need to post your firm for sale.

But start asking yourself the Monday question.

If you didn't show up Monday morning, what would break? What would keep working? Who would know what to do?

The answers tell you whether you've built a business or just a job.

And if the answer is "mostly a job," that's okay. You're not behind. But you might want to start thinking about what it would take to change that - especially if retirement is anywhere on your radar in the next 5-10 years.

Because the lawyers who figure this out early have options.

The ones who wait until they're exhausted and ready to be done? They usually don't.