It has been reported that Linklaters senior partner David Cheyne and Slaughter and May corporate partner Nigel Boardman joined a discussion recently to consider what might be offered to those nearing retirement age and what help could be given to them finding positions outside the law.

Some of the City’s leading legal names have called for more options to be made available to partners as they approach retirement age. Whatever happened to the golf course or retirement villas in sun blessed regions of the world?

US firms such as Michael Hatchard of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, Jerry Walter at Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson and Charles Lubar at Morgan Lewis & Bockius stressed the benefits of a US-style system allowing partners to stay within firms for longer.

Lubar commented: “I find it extraordinary that so much talent is cut off in the UK at a relatively early age. I am 67 and still a full‑time practising lawyer. I have a reasonable balance inside the firm and the encouragement to stay that way.”

How long do folks want to work these days; if recent reports about ageing populations are to be believed, then we may see the official retirement age being pushed further and further back. 67 may look like early retirement in a decade or two…

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