Exit and Alumni Management for Professional Services
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
What this looks like in professional services
The parts of exit and alumni management that are specific to this sector, rather than general.
Client Continuity and the Billable Tail
The product is the people, so the exit is a client event.
What this coversHide
Client Continuity and the Billable Tail
The product is the people, so the exit is a client event.
What this coversHideWhen a fee earner leaves, the firm's exposure is the client relationship and the unbilled work sitting behind it. Both are usually understood by exactly one person.
- Client portfolio reassigned and introductions completed
- Work in progress reviewed and billed or written off deliberately
- Engagement files, working papers and matter notes handed over
- Open deliverables and deadlines transferred with dates
- Client informed by the firm, not by the departing person
- Confidentiality and non-solicit position confirmed
- Professional and practising credentials record closed
- Referral and alumni relationship established
Who tells the client is the decision that matters most and is most often left to drift. A client who hears it from the leaver first assumes the relationship travels with them, and in a meaningful proportion of cases it then does.
The general method — what exit and alumni management covers, the questions it answers and what an engagement produces — is the same whatever the sector, and is set out on the exit and offboarding process page. What is above is the part that differs for professional services.
Other HR topics for professional services
Where to start
Most engagements begin with a review of how this runs in your business today, then a written process and the sequence to implement it.
See all HR topics for professional services, or another industry.