If you’re a practicing attorney in the State of New Mexico, you must have a NM Lawyer Succession Plan. The compliance deadline is October 1st, 2022.
WHAT DOES THE RULE SAY?
The New Mexico Supreme Court has mandated that all attorneys practicing law in the State of New Mexico have a written succession plan, either alone or as part of a firm plan specifying the steps to be taken in the event of an attorney’s extended incapacity from practicing law or in the event of the attorney’s death.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOUR PRACTICE?
You must have a plan in place that includes the provisions outlined by the NM Supreme Court. Specifically — notice, plan, communication with clients, and Certificate of Compliance registered with the State. Your plan must not only be created but updated as needed and as circumstances change.
BUSINESS LAW SOUTHWEST IS HERE TO HELP.
Business Law Southwest has a turn-key solution ready to ensure you are compliant with this requirement. We will draft a Business Succession Plan with all the elements listed in Rule 16-119. Moreover, we offer package options that can include ongoing maintenance to your plan, as well as plan execution.
Business Law Southwest. Business law that makes business sense.
Comments
What would you charge to be a designated attorney succession for Rule 16-119 when I have very few clients at all, let alone in NM? Most are in ND where my LLC is.
I write Indian Trust Land Wills.
Hi, Rebecca.
Thank you for your question, and I apologize for the delay in responding to you. We haven’t been monitoring our blog comments as frequently as we should. To get a more immediate reply, please just contact us directly.
In answer to your question, we have been willing to negotiate our “assisting attorney” rates, but not typically in your case. The reason is, if something happens to you (heaven forbid), we still have a lot of work to do in investigation and managing your files. Also, we doubt your ND clients won’t also be contacting us, and that we wouldn’t have to deal with those circumstances.
Thank you. Larry.
Hello,
I am a recently barred Attorney in the State of New Mexico. I’m in the process of relocating to New Mexico for a government job. But the Attorney registration is coming up in February and Rule 16-119 in play. How would the process with your firm work?
Thank You,
Hector Bejarano
Hi, Hector.
I apologize for the delay in responding to you. We don’t monitor our comments to our blog as frequently as we should be. I’ll work on changing that.
Here’s a quick overview of how we can help: (1) We can be your “Assisting Lawyer”, with no term lock (i.e. you can cancel at any time), starting at $99/month (depending on the size of your practice), and/or (2) We can help you produce your Succession Plan compliant with 16-119 NMRA.
We spent a lot of time trying to figure out an appropriate monthly rate for the Assisting Lawyer, and it’s based on a number of assumptions. One concern is that if (heaven forbid) something does happen to you, we need to be able to quickly access everything regarding your practice and even one client deadline missed or trust account balance dispute can potentially see us fighting off a malpractice claim and/or d-board complaint — without getting reimbursed for any of it. So, while the $99/month may seem like a lot if you have a small practice, if you think of it through the lens I just mentioned, I hope it makes more sense.
Even if you have your own Succession Plan already, we’re still going to need to work with you to make it compliant with our template (for the same reason I mentioned above regarding our rate). This will be an extra fee we charge (our standard hourly rate as attorneys), based on how much time we spend with you on this. We’ve been spending on the low-side an hour, and up to a few hours, to help attorneys with this.
Please contact us if you have any questions.
Thank you. Larry.