Memo
To: Law Firm Partners
From: Nermin, Esq.
Date: April 6, 2026
Re: “Let’s revisit this later”
I’ve been working with lawyers and partners for 10+ years. And as a lawyer myself, I know how easy it is to say “let’s revisit this later.” We’re just kicking the can down the road, and not making any decisions today.
Afterall, we need more information, we need more time, we need more mental bandwidth to make this decision.
Sometimes, that decision as a partner or shareholder in a firm is financial: how many associates can we afford to bring on, are we going to expand our offices to a third or tenth location, what are we setting our rates to for the next year.
Sometimes, that decision is easy to make but you need multiple people to make it.
That “let’s revisit this later” sometimes becomes a party slogan and can cost you trust among your leadership or management team at your firm.
I’ll walk you through a couple of examples of what I have seen.
Example 1. Partner A wants to discuss origination
Partner A brings in $2 million of billable revenue each year (a $2 million dollar book of business), and is profitable for the firm. Partner A has been originating the work, but it has been serviced in part by Partner B and Partner B’s associate. Partner A’s origination is being capped because Partner A isn’t servicing 100% of the work and wants to discuss this with the Partnership team.
Partner A and B agreed they would let the partners decide on this, and leadership has said some version of “let’s revisit this later” for the last 5 partnership meetings.
Partner A is getting antsy, feeling ignored, and instead of having Partner B continue to service the work, wants to bring in a Senior Attorney to delegate the work to.
In my experience, the firm has lost more money than you can imagine by making a $2 million dollar Partner feel antsy, ignored, and having to basically say: I don’t trust leadership to resolve this for me, so I’m going to resolve it myself by bringing in a Senior Attorney.
Did Partner A explicitly say that? No.
But the actions of repeatedly bringing this matter up, having it not be addressed, and hiring a senior associate all point to Partner A being unhappy.
Partner B and B’s associate now have less billable work they can service, and Partner B’s compensation will be effected.
Partner A and B are effectively unhappy because the Firm’s leadership didn’t take action.
This is 100% going to show up in future partnership meetings and will inherently effect the growth of the firm.
Example 2. Partner C wants to retire
Partner C wants to retire from your firm and has been saying this lightly in partner meetings, in 1:1 conversations and mentioned it at the firm retreat last summer.
All of the partners are aware of this but haven’t had a direct conversation around this around. Rather, they’ve kept it as a “let’s revisit this later” for over 2 years.
Partner C announces their retirement, giving only a 90-day notice.
That’s 90 days to find out which clients are staying on, who can service the work, who will need to be hired to take over the work, training that person and doing relationship management, and figuring out origination and comp for Partner C.
This is a nightmare, and by not addressing it earlier on, the firm is going to lose billable work, loyal clients, and has an operational nightmare of hiring someone new and training them on the client matters.
“Let’s revisit this later” is the easiest sentence to say. Why decide now, when you can decide later? It’s the politically correct thing to say, and it’s what partners love to say.
But, not making decisions, delaying decisions without saying WHEN you should solve it, is costing you millions of dollars each year.
It doesn’t sound like it, but here’s how it breaks down:
-What if Partner A left? That cost the firm $2 million in billable work.
-What if Partner C’s biggest client was not a firm client and had no contact with anyone else, and decides to leave when Partner C retires? That cost the firm $750k in billable work.
-What if Partner B is truly a service partner and doesn’t have the willingness to originate work? How upset is Partner B now that this billable work is gone?
Don’t say “let’s revisit this later.” Instead, list out all of the things that are unresolved in your firm, and find an expert who can guide the partners to make these decisions based on numbers and not the feelings (next post will be about this in more detail).
If your firm is saying “let’s revisit this later,” let’s you and I talk: nermin@nerminesq.com.
