Colorado law firms are entering a period of demographic change that could reshape who owns, leads and works in them — and how firms develop the next generation of lawyers.
Demographically, the profession is aging as baby boomers approach or move beyond traditional retirement age, while women now make up a majority of law school graduates. At the same time, younger lawyers are bringing new expectations about career development, flexibility and workplace culture to the profession.
For Gene Commander, a longtime Colorado lawyer and executive business adviser to law firms, these trends point to a need for more deliberate succession and talent strategies.
“A lot of this has to do with the ticking of the clock,” he said.
Commander spent more than four decades practicing construction law, including serving as a managing shareholder of the Denver office of an Am Law 100 firm. He now advises law firms on leadership transitions, talent development, workplace culture and partner compensation, among other issues.
Data makes the demographic challenge clear: Nearly 14% of U.S. lawyers are 65 or older, compared with about 7% of workers across all industries, according to data cited by Commander. The American Bar Association reported that the median age of lawyers was 46 in 2023, compared with 42.1 for American workers overall.
By 2030, Commander has said, the youngest baby boomers will reach 65, even as millennials seek leadership and ownership positions and as Gen Z enters the ranks of senior associates and junior partners.
The transition raises a practical question: How do firms create room for the next generation without treating experienced lawyers as though reaching a certain age means they should stop practicing?
Rethinking Succession
Commander advocates beginning conversations about the end of a lawyer’s ownership and leadership career around age 62.
That does not mean retirement at 62 — or even at 65, he said. Instead, setting firmwide standards that a succession conversation starts at a certain age gives lawyers and firms time to plan.
“There’s often a lack of planning or a hesitancy to have what could be uncomfortable conversations,” he said.
Making the process known and intentional changes a healthy dynamic, he said. A predictable process also gives the next generation a more transparent path to ownership and leadership.
Plans could look very different across firms. In some scenarios, a lawyer might begin giving back ownership between ages 65 and 70 while still practicing and serving clients. The important point, Commander said, is that another lawyer should be developing alongside the senior attorney.
“If you were the client, you would want that,” he said, adding, “It takes three to five years to put a high-level succession plan in place across clients, leadership and ownership.”
A Changing Workforce
Considerations about succession are intertwined with questions about the changing composition of the profession and who should lead.
Women now account for 55% of U.S. law school graduates, compared with 9% of law students in 1970. Women make up about 41% of U.S. lawyers, but their representation in partnership hovers around 30%, according to the American Bar Association.
Commander said the increasing number of women entering the profession presents an opportunity for firms, but only if workplace structures evolve with the workforce.
“Law firms traditionally have not done as well at advancing women into leadership and ownership roles,” he said, contributing to disproportionately high attrition among women.
Firms can create more leadership opportunities for women by offering flexible career paths rather than a single model of advancement, he said.
Developing the Next Generation
Commander urged firms to think about succession from both ends of the career spectrum.
He cautioned against assuming younger lawyers move among firms primarily for higher salaries. A lack of intentional career development, unclear career paths and weak workplace culture can all contribute to attrition. “When people don’t feel like they belong, they move on,” he said.
Instead, “it’s important to develop an owner’s mentality among younger lawyers,” Commander said, defining an “owner’s mentality” as training associates to become stewards of the firm’s future. “Every business needs to have a sufficient number of owners or potential owners in the pipeline.”
Development should begin early. He said, “Young lawyers should learn not only how to practice law but how their clients make money, how the firm makes money, how the firm attracts and retains clients and how legal services are priced.”
The Workplace as a Training Ground
One way Commander thinks firms could better help lawyers develop an owner’s mentality is through more face-to-face time in the office.
While he agreed hybrid work is here to stay, he believes in-person interaction can be valuable, especially for inexperienced lawyers.
He pointed to the development of skills such as “reading a room,” which can come from observing experienced lawyers and learning through informal interactions.
“If I was still working in a law firm, I would be going to the office every day,” Commander said. “That is how I’m wired.”
Yet simply requiring lawyers to show up is not enough. “If you’re going to have requirements for the younger and less experienced attorneys, the partners and the more senior lawyers need to participate in the office as well,” he said.
This goal of intentional talent runs through Commander’s overarching approach to law firm management, which he describes as “smart growth,” or “investing in the firm’s existing human capital, developing future leaders and creating sustainable structures.”
For firms confronting demographic change, smart growth may mean viewing succession not as an endpoint but as an ongoing process.
Editor’s Note: This article is the second in a multi-part series exploring the shifting business models of Colorado law firms.