I hope that we can all gain generational empathy and learn to better identify with the experiences, feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of others outside our generation.
school applications were down last year by 11 percent.5
Nevertheless, I guess
you can imagine how this will aff ect your career. At a minimum, you might be a little busier than you already are today. It also seems that you will need to be prepared to take over all of that work. Have you learned all you need to know from the boomers in your offi ce in order to do that?6
On the
other hand, if a 65-year-old female boomer retires today, she may live for approximately 19.6 more years, accord- ing to U.S. Census life expectancy average estimates. How much money will she need to maintain her lifestyle for approximately 20 years after she leaves the profession? She may feel inclined to return to work after having retired if she fi nds that her savings do not meet her needs. Or, maybe she will feel pressure to continue working for 10 more of those 20 years to maintain her earnings. If she continues being the relationship partner for that insti- tutional client, it may leave you with little chance to get to take over the relationship anytime soon. By way of another example, how boring does life get when you do not have your 9-to-5 to occupy your mind? I don’t know. Maybe your favorite in-house boomer
can’t imagine keeping himself busy with the stereotypical early -morning golf game after having helped negoti- ate some of the company’s biggest deals over the last 30 years. He may just decide to stick around the offi ce and con- tinue being the primary contact to those business principals that you cannot seem to ever get to call you as the fi rst line of defense.
Now you may be asking what I
want you to do about all of this. Well, I did not write this piece to diminish baby boomers, to minimize the very diffi cult decisions that many boomers are facing as they contemplate how they want to spend the next years of their career, to paint Gen X and Gen Y as insensitive, or to suggest that other generations should only be concerned about how these issues aff ect them- selves. I propose quite the opposite, actually. I am writing this to start a dialogue about the retirement of the boomer generation. I hope to appeal to my Gen X peers and my Gen Y friends to appreciate, if only on some rudimen- tary level, how challenging these issues are, to learn more about these issues on their own, and to talk to their boomer
1
The Law’s “Gray” Area, March 2001, available online at
http://www.mayerbrown.com/publications/article. asp?id=1452&nid=6.
2
Elizabeth Goldberg, Law Firms Face Gray Area as Boomers Age, The American Lawyer, December 10, 2007, available online at
http://www.law.com/jsp/tal/ PubArticleTAL.jsp?id=900005558998.
3
Susan S. Sperber, The Aging Of The Baby Boomers: What Does It Mean For The Legal Profession?, December 4, 2007, available online at
http://www.rothgerber.com/ showarticle.aspx?Show=935.
4 Id. at Note 1. 5 According to the American Bar Association, there were
colleagues about their plans and how the profession and individual employers and employees can be more responsive to their needs, whether they decide to continue working or take a traditional retirement at 65. I hope that we can all gain generational empathy and learn to better identify with the experiences, feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of others outside of our generation. T e truth is, Gen X and Y members,
the golden rule is still a good rule. I think we all hope that the next genera- tion will be empathetic to our circum- stances when we are faced with similar decisions about our own retirement and that we will be treated well by those younger than us. I humbly sug- gest that we not wait until it’s our turn to inform ourselves about these issues and certainly not wait to contribute constructive solutions on how we all can see to the graceful transition of the boomer generation.7 D&B
To continue this discussion and assist you and your organization with these issues, MCCA will be hosting a session on this topic entitled “T e Transition of a Generation: How Your Organization Can Successfully Navigate the Exodus of Baby Boomers” at its Creating Pathways to Diversity® Conference to be held in New York City on September 26, 2011. Visit
mcca.com to learn more about the conference and register.
Lori L. Garret is MCCA’s vice president and managing director for MCCA’s southeast region. She heads MCCA’s professional development services.
1,225, 452 lawyers in the United States as of December 31, 2010:
http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/ aba/administrative/market_research/2011_national_
lawyer_by_state.authcheckdam.pdf
6 Nathan Koppel, Law School Loses Its Allure as Jobs at
Firms Are Scarce, The Wall Street Journal, March 17, 2011, available online at
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001 424052748704396504576204692878631986.html
7 I would like to acknowledge and extend my heartfelt
gratitude to the following boomers who were willing to refl ect on their careers and talk to me about their concerns regarding retirement: Leonard Hedgepeth, John Lynch, Wanda Lynch, and Ida Tate. I would also like to thank Kenneth Garrett for his contributions to this article.
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