Reimagine, Refocus or Retire: The Next Stage for Senior Attorneys [Panel Discussion]

Stephen Seckler, Esq. is an accomplished executive coach who specializes not only in guiding lawyers through career transitions but also in coaching them to find comfortable ways to market their services. He also works with lawyers who are transitioning into leadership roles within law firms or corporate law departments. As a lawyer himself who has worked in recruiting and continuing legal education, he has a deep understanding of the legal industry and the challenges that lawyers face when contemplating change. As he likes to say, he helps lawyers to stop thinking and acting like a lawyer when they are not giving legal advice.

Executive transition coach, speaker, and writer Judith Kurnick guides late-career lawyers, executives, and business owners in creating their individual plan to “rewire” and stay relevant, productive, and energized in their next stage. A former classical musician, C-suite executive, and consultant, she works deeply with each client to meet their needs with structured coaching and customized resources.

Judith’s ABA presentation, Working Differently: What Lawyers Who Plan to Never Retire Need to Know with Robert Louis, Esq. drew nearly four hundred lawyers. She leads conversations about the Longevity Revolution for bar and exit planning associations, AmLaw 100 law firms, executive and business networks, financial advisor client groups, and podcasts.

Judith has been featured on Philadelphia’s ABC TV station and Comcast’s Money Matters and has presented to the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, New Jersey State Bar Association, Exit Planning Exchange, Wells Fargo Advisors, Entrust Financial, and the Forum of Executive Women, among others. During her 35-year career as a strategic communications executive and consultant, Judith advised leaders in banking, health care, academia, and the arts.

Paul Lee is a retired partner from Goodwin Law. Prior to his retirement about 10 years ago at the age of sixty-three, he concentrated on corporate and securities law and represented high technology and financial services companies.

Mr. Lee has served as chair of Goodwin’s Business Law Department and as a member of several firm committees, including the Associate Compensation and Legal Personnel Supervision Committees.

Mr. Lee has been active in community service for many years. Currently, he is a Founder and Chair of the Steering Committee of the Asian Community Fund at the Boston Foundation and the Asian Business Empowerment Council. He currently serves on the Boards of the Asian Community Development Corporation (where he is a founder and past Board President), WGBH, Coalition for Anti-Racism and Equity in Education (Care) and the Conservation Law Foundation.

At the American Bar Association, he served as a member of the Board of Governors and House of Delegates, the Commissions on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession, on Women in the Profession, on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, and on Membership, Standing Committee on Technology and Information Services, Asia Law Initiatives Council, and as Chair of the Standing Committee on Publishing Oversight.

He is a past President of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association and a Founder and first President of the Asian American Lawyers Association of Massachusetts. He is a past Board member of the Boston Foundation, Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence, South Cove Community Health Center. Nationally, he is a past Board Chair of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC in Washington DC. He was a Fellow and Senior Fellow at the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative.

Finally, he is a master barbecuer.

Elizabeth A. Levy is a retired intellectual property attorney and mechanical engineer. She practiced law in boutique and international general practice law firms, high-tech and medical device companies, and a major university. She graduated with honors both from Suffolk University Law School and in engineering from the University of Texas. She served for 6 years as a hearing officer on attorney discipline cases for the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers. She is an active member of the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL), having served as a board member and led its Affinity Groups for 6 years, and as executive editor of its Women Lawyers Journal. She now chairs NAWL’s Women Revolutionizing Retirement Affinity Group. She studied martial arts for over 26 years and holds a master rank in Uechi-Ryu karate. She is a certified tutor of English as a Second Language and works with several learners each week. She manages the care of her remarkably independent 96-year-old mother, and she hopes to have inherited some of that DNA.

Arthur (Art) Kreiger, Esq. is a co-founder and senior counsel for Anderson & Kreiger where he worked for over 35 years as a recognized leader in environmental law, zoning, local permitting, land use and municipal law for public and private clients, including businesses, non-profit organizations, municipalities, and citizen groups.

In 2015, Art reduced his work hours to obtain a Master Gardener certification from the Massachusetts Master Gardeners Association. Over the next few years, he reduced his hours further and volunteered in various gardens, including at the Longfellow House, Lyman Estate, and Drumlin Farm. In 2023, Art made the transition at Anderson & Kreiger from partner to senior counsel. He currently works 10-20 hours per month on select environmental and zoning cases, mediations, and other legal matters. In the meantime, in addition to his volunteering, Art has acquired half a dozen garden/landscape clients for whom he removes invasive species and designs and plants native plant beds.

Besides his two very part-time careers, Art and his wife spend their time with her 100-year-old mother and their two young grandchildren. (They consider themselves part of the “club sandwich generation”). They travel to the Berkshires to visit their other children, and Art studies piano and plays Ultimate frisbee (Grandmasters division), squash and pickleball when he can find a game.