'Those two are the worst lawyers ever': Law firm partner forced into retirement receives free pension thanks to "poorly drafted exit docs"

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Sep 16, 2024 3:00 PM EDT

Although he was forced into a surprise early retirement, this lawyer got the last laugh! 

Being a partner at a law firm is a big deal. Some lawyers spend their entire careers trying to become partner at a law firm and never manage to do so. Others, like this person, do become partners. U/Villageidiot1984 shared the story of what happened when one of their family members had that prized position ripped away from him all of the sudden! 

As this person explains, their family member was hastily pushed out by the other two law firm partners. But this dude was a good lawyer, and he followed that tried and true advice of always reading the fine print of the things you sign. You never know what you'll discover hidden in the size 7 font fine print! And as a lawyer, this person was in a particularly great position to sign their way into easy living. It must've come as a huge surprise to suddenly have to leave a job they were partner at, but at least they got the last laugh and a cushy retirement. 

After that, read about the tiny things that bother people way more than they should, like one person who thinks everyone should always "throw away your trash at the movie theater." 

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    Cheezburger Image 10403832064
    via Sebastian Pichler on Unsplash
  • 02
    Poorly drafted exit docs free pension M OC This happened to a family member and it's my favorite legal fi story. up
    via u/Villageidiot1984
  • 03
    My family member was a partner in a law firm. The way a lot of law firms work is partners who retire get a pension. It's based on their last few years average salary or something similar. This only applies if you truly retire and not go work somewhere else and my family member was not near retiring.
    via u/Villageidiot1984
  • 04
    The two other partners who were in his area of practice at this firm decided to push him out. Instead of trying to come to an agreement for him to leave, they ambushed him in a meeting where they had already drafted exit documents for him to sign. They included some token severance but basically said pack your s or we are going to make this a huge hostile thing and drag your name through the mud, etc.
    via u/Villageidiot1984
  • 05
    There is a non-compete clause in a lot of partnership agreements so you can't leave and take clients and go work somewhere else right away if you're a partner. In their haste to prepare these documents they negated a bunch of these clauses so he would be able to work at another firm without waiting the non-compete period.
    via u/Villageidiot1984
  • 06
    But they missed that some of those clauses were also what governed the part of the pension clause that doesn't let you get the pension if you work for another firm after you leave. Basically, they wrote docs that gave him a pension way early and for the rest of his life, and based on some really good years he'd had for the firm.
    via u/Villageidiot1984
  • 07
    He noticed this when he read them bc he's a good lawyer (lol) and knew they f up and also knew he would be able to get a job pretty easily so instead of negotiating or fighting it he just signed them as is and left. They were very surprised expecting a huge fight or a long negotiation.
    via u/Villageidiot1984
  • 08
    He ended up getting another job pretty quickly at a different law firm. He waited a couple months and then called one of the other partners and said something like "So when are you going to start making the payments?"
    via u/Villageidiot1984
  • 09
    At his age when this happened they would have had to pay him a large amount of money every year for maybe 40-50 years. They basically s their pants. Once they went back through and realized what they had forced him to sign they started making offers to buy him out of his pension. He eventually settled for a multi- million dollar payout, all because he signed the documents they put in front of him.
    via u/Villageidiot1984
  • 10
    RJack151 Looks like those two are the worst lawyers ever. They forced out the smart one.
    via u/RJack151
  • 11
    ScarletCarson Rose I can't believe their spidy senses weren't jumping off the needle. Never interrupt your enemy when they're making a mistake
    via u/Villageidiot1984
  • 12
    AlvinOwlHirt I've seen that happen before. My husband had several law firms as clients. I don't think any of them read the contract they signed with him. Of course, one issue came up. The judge laughed that lawyer out of court- lawyer even admitted that he hadn't read the contract. Husband is not a lawyer however he could write a tight contract.
    via u/Villageidiot1984
  • 13
    hotlavatube "Ha, ha, we sure got him! Wait... why is he smiling?"
    via u/Villageidiot1984
  • 14
    Impossible-Gur8548. Does anyone know if an errors and omissions policy would cover that? I'm assuming that's a part of every law firm's business insurance package.
    via u/Villageidiot1984
  • 15
    Villageidiot1984 OP. This is a great question! I don't know. One thing I know from talking about the situation is they f the docs up badly. It wasn't like a missing comma. If you read the docs it read like he was owed a pension. It was inexplicably bad.
    via u/Villageidiot1984
  • 16
    The_fishingfool. What is preventing them from scuttling the old firm remaking it with a new name and keep all the same clients minus one pensioner. 171 Reply Share Villageidiot1984 OP. Without giving away too much info, it's an old white shoe firm in New York, scuttling the brand name would have been worth way more than a few million bucks. They were also very embarrassed and didn't want to attract attention to their f up.
    via u/Villageidiot1984
  • 17
    Edit to add if a firm - did this it wouldn't hold up in court. You can't dissolve a firm to avoid paying your creditors and just keep the assets. You'd have to quantify the pensions values and they would be a creditor in a reorg and get paid out anyway. No bankruptcy court would approve the reorg if the company wasn't actually insolvent and just didn't want to pay its creditors. This gets towards actual fraud which would be much worse than losing some money.
    via u/Villageidiot1984

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malicious compliance lawyer laws malicious-compliance-reddit partners practice retired family retirement malicious compliance reddit
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