Run a Departure as a Client Event, in a Defined Order
When a fee earner leaves, the firm's exposure is the client relationship and the unbilled work behind it. We help you set an order that runs from resignation through portfolio handover, client communication, return of assets and access, to settlement, relieving letter and alumni contact. You decide the terms of each exit; we make sure the steps are done in an order that protects the clients, the firm and the person leaving.
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Share your requirementsThe starting point
Is a Resignation Handled as an HR Event, or a Client One?
In a professional firm a resignation often reaches HR last. The partner hears first, clients hear informally and files are handed over on the last afternoon. Access to client systems is cut on a day nobody planned, and the person leaves with a mixed impression of the firm.
We help you give each departure a plan that protects the client work and treats the leaver fairly.
You may be experiencing:
- Notice periods that are not used for handover, or are waived without a plan for the work.
- A departing manager's client list known only to that manager.
- Clients learning of a departure from the person leaving, or from a competitor, before the firm says anything.
- Unbilled work, open queries and filing deadlines on files that have no named owner after the last day.
- Access to client folders, practice-management systems and shared mailboxes left active for days after exit.
- Questions about taking templates, contacts and working papers handled by argument on the last day.
- Settlement delayed because recoveries, leave position and bonus questions were never put in order.
What we can help with
Our Exit and Alumni Services for Professional Services Firms
Resignation and Acknowledgement
Define how a resignation is submitted, who receives it, how it is acknowledged and the date by which the notice period and last working day are confirmed in writing.
Notice Period Planning
Set how the notice period is used, including whether the person works full time, hands over and is released early, with the partner's decision on each recorded.
Portfolio and Open-Work Listing
A list of clients, engagements, open queries, deadlines and unbilled work held by the person, completed by the person and reviewed by the practice head.
Client Communication Plan
For each client or group of clients, decide who tells them, when, what is said and who becomes the new contact, with an agreed script and a record of each conversation.
Knowledge Transfer
Gather working papers, drafts, templates, contact notes and know-how in the firm's own systems, with a short handover meeting for each important file.
Clearance, Assets and Access
A checklist for return of devices and cards, closure of access to practice, document and email systems, redirection of mail and a sign-off by each owner.
Settlement Sequence
Set the order of recoveries, leave position, pending claims and benefit closure, who signs and the day by which the statement is shared. Confirm settlement terms with a qualified professional.
Letters, Rehire and Alumni Contact
Formats for relieving and experience letters, a record of whether the firm would rehire, and a light alumni arrangement that keeps in touch with those who left well.
The deliverables
What You Receive
Depending on the agreed scope, you receive:
- An exit process and timeline from resignation to last day.
- A portfolio and open-work handover format.
- A client communication plan template.
- A clearance checklist covering assets and access.
- A settlement sequence.
- An exit interview format.
- Letter formats and a rehire and alumni note.
Step by step
How We Work
Review How Departures Run
We look at recent exits, in general terms, with partners and HR, to find where clients, files or the person leaving were poorly handled.
Design the Order of Steps
We write the process from resignation to alumni contact, with owners and timing for each step.
Prepare the Handover Tools
We create the portfolio format, the communication template and the clearance checklist.
Set Up Tracking
We configure the steps as a workflow, so each owner is reminded and HR can see what is open.
Use and Refine
We record a baseline, support the first few exits and adjust what did not fit.
The difference
Departures That Protect the Client and the Relationship
A defined exit process helps the firm to:
We do not promise outcomes. We record a baseline before work starts, covering open matters without an owner on the last day, days between last working day and settlement, and access closed on time, and report against it, so you can see what changed and what did not.
- Learn of a resignation and respond in a set order.
- Know every client and open matter a leaver held.
- Tell clients before they hear elsewhere.
- Close system access on the planned day.
- Complete settlement without recurring queries.
- Keep contact with those who may later return or refer.
Find your fit
Who This Service Is For
Firms With Client-Holding Managers
Where an exit is a risk to relationships.
Firms With Regular Associate Turnover
Where exits happen often enough to need a routine.
Firms With Sensitive Information
Where access and working papers must be handled carefully on exit.
Engineering and Design Consultancies
Where project knowledge sits with individual leads and discipline heads.
Staffing Companies
Where a leaving recruiter or consultant affects both client orders and candidate relationships.
How it usually shows up in professional services
In a professional firm, the people hold the client relationships, the working knowledge of each file and often the draft work not yet billed. An exit therefore touches clients directly. Resignations are usually received by a partner, discussed informally and processed by HR late. The notice period is used for handing over, but the handover is a conversation and not a list. Client introductions, status of open engagements, pending deliverables, unbilled time and working papers are understood by the person leaving and by almost nobody else. Access to client systems and shared drives is removed late or only partially, and confidentiality reminders are given inconsistently. Settlement involves notice recovery, leave balance and sometimes bonus, and is decided case by case. Some departing professionals move to a competitor or a client, and the firm has no plan for that conversation, nor for staying in touch with alumni who could send work back.
Common challenges
Where it goes wrong in professional services
Handover is a conversation
Open engagements, deadlines and unbilled work are not written down for the person taking over.
Clients learn late
A client may hear of a departure from the person leaving, or after they have gone.
Access stays open
Client drives, email forwarding and systems are removed late or partially.
Alumni are not kept
Former colleagues who could refer clients or return are lost.
A better process
What a working version looks like
- 01
Acknowledge and fix dates
A written acknowledgement of the resignation, the notice terms and the last working day. The exit and offboarding process sets the order.
- 02
List the portfolio
Each client, open engagement, deadline, pending deliverable and unbilled item, with a named successor for each.
- 03
Tell clients on a plan
The partner and the successor decide how and when each client is told, and who introduces whom.
- 04
Clear access and reminders
Access to client systems removed on the last day, files returned and confidentiality obligations restated in writing.
- 05
Settle and stay in touch
Full-and-final settlement on a defined timeline, an experience letter and an alumni list kept by the firm. The exit software can hold the checklist.
What to check this week
- Read the last handover note and see whether a stranger could use it.
- Ask when clients were told about the last departure of a manager.
- Check whether access to client folders was removed on the last working day.
- Find the last settlement and see how long it took to pay.
- Ask whether any former colleague has referred work to the firm.
Confirm with a qualified professional. What applies depends on your establishment, your state and your sector, and it changes. This page describes a practice; it does not state a legal position.
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.
Questions on this, in professional services
By listing the portfolio early, deciding who tells each client and when, naming the new contact and recording the conversation. The communication comes from the firm, not from the leaver or a competitor.
That depends on the contract and on the agreement between the firm and the person. We help you record the decision and plan the handover around it. Confirm the terms with a qualified professional, as GullyHR does not give legal advice.
The process lists the working papers, files and contacts to be handed over and sets how access is closed. Questions about what a leaver may keep or use afterwards are matters for your contracts and your adviser.
Yes, preferably with someone outside the reporting line, before the last day. They are most useful when what is learned is summarised and brought to the partners, so that patterns across leavers can be seen.
A light arrangement to stay in touch with people who left on good terms, who may refer clients, return later or work with the firm as freelancers. It can be as simple as a list and a yearly message.
Yes. Resignation, handover, clearance, access closure and settlement steps can be configured as a workflow on the GullyHR platform or in your own system, with reminders and sign-offs from each owner.
Each client and engagement, status and deadlines, pending work, unbilled time, key contacts and where the files are. It must be written, so the successor does not depend on the person leaving.
The engagement partner should decide the timing and wording with the successor, tell the important clients personally and introduce the new contact before the last day.
Remove access on the last day, collect files and devices and restate the confidentiality obligations in writing. Confirm what is enforceable with a qualified professional.
Former colleagues often become clients, referrers or returning hires. A small effort to stay in touch keeps those doors open.
Make Every Departure Orderly
Tell us how exits are handled now and what has gone wrong in the past. We will discuss how to set up a process that protects the clients and respects the person leaving.
Prefer to talk first? Call +91 80958 58589 or write to hello@gullyhr.com.
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.
To run this in a system rather than on paper, see exit and offboarding software.
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.