The figures are stark. It is estimated that nearly 70 per cent of law firm partners are “baby boomers,” according to Hildebrandt International, an international legal consulting firm. In the United States, the latest figures reveal that approximately 400,000 lawyers will reach retirement age at some point within the next decade. Nearly a third of California’s 170,000 active attorneys are older than 55, and 21 per cent older than 60. Closer to home, 8,284 of its 22,500 members are over the age of 50, according to the latest figures from the Barreau du Québec. In Ontario, a startling 42 per cent of lawyer licensees, for a total of 17,850, are over the age of 50, reveals a demographic breakdown from the Law Society of Upper Canada.
Yet though the median age in the profession has increased, with the youngest baby boomers expecting to reach the mid-50s and the oldest the early 70s by the year 2018, Canadian law firms are seemingly struggling to come to grips with the changing demographics and are slow, if not reluctant, to deal with retirement as a major firm issue, assert legal industry observers.