The wisdom an old-timer imparts to his younger colleague in Kenny Rogers’ iconic song, “The Gambler, has resonance for the bar generally and for those of us who are in our 70s and beyond more particularly: “You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em; know when to fold ‘em; know when to walk away; know when to run… .” In this editorial, we deal with a lawyer’s voluntary decision to “hold ‘em or “fold ‘em”—to continue practicing or to pack up and retire from the law. It assumes the lawyer is not being forced to leave the profession by a finding of incapacity, an imposition of a disciplinary authority’s determination of wrongdoing, or by the demands of professional associates.

Obviously, if the ravages of age have affected performance, and that performance has attracted the attention of clients, professional colleagues and, ultimately, a disciplinary board, one’s choice to stay or go is unlikely to be wholly voluntary. Aging is usually a material component implicated in the decision to leave. Aging may bring accumulated wisdom but it also brings impairment of attention, orientation, memory, judgment, language, motor and spatial skills, and function. It also causes one to skip steps in necessary tasks and to experience memory lapses considerably more consequential than the proverbial “senior moments.” Mental functioning deteriorates. Distractibility increases. We move slower and think slower. To one degree or another, aging’s consequences are inescapable. There may be outliers but, for most of us, there will be come a time when clients will get less of us because we have less to give.

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