For 26 years, real estate transactional lawyer Jim Alsup helped lead JW, serving as Austin Managing Partner and on the Management Committee, while building a practice. He reflects on a people-first culture that delivered serious client service without taking itself too seriously. Now retired, he’s trading closings for mountain trails, time with six young grandchildren, and the freedom to set his own schedule—along with candid advice for those considering retirement. Below is a Q&A featuring the JW alumnus:
During your time at JW, what was your practice, and what was the nature of your responsibilities?
My practice at JW was a general real estate transactional practice, focused primarily on purchases and sales and office and retail leasing. The majority of my work was focused in the Austin area. When I joined JW in 1999 as a part of the merger with Small, Craig & Werkenthin, I became the Managing Partner of the JW Austin office and a member of the Management Committee, serving in those capacities for the next 12 to 15 years. I retired earlier this year.
What do you appreciate the most about the time you spent at JW?
Without a doubt, it was the combination of the people and the firm’s culture. Many of my closest friends today are the partners I practiced with at JW, and I still enjoy socializing with them. In addition to the people, I also appreciate the firm’s emphasis on having fun while you practice and, while taking the representation of our clients seriously, not taking ourselves too seriously. I think these are the best combinations to help deal with the inevitable pressures of practicing law.
Do you have a favorite JW memory you would like to share?
I have so many great memories from my 26 years with the firm that it would be impossible to pick a single favorite.
But since only one is requested, I will share a story that involves the negotiations of the merger between JW and Small, Craig & Werkenthin. A headhunter had approached me as the Managing Partner of SCW and told me that JW was interested in talking to SCW about a merger. After additional discussions among the SCW management committee, we decided that although SCW wasn’t looking to merge, we should at least meet with JW and see what they had to say. So, the headhunter set up a confidential meeting between the two management committees late on a Friday afternoon in the penthouse of the then-new Marriott Hotel in Austin. Everyone was in attendance except the headhunter, who it turned out had put the wrong date on his calendar and was still in Dallas. The meeting proceeded without him, and after that inauspicious start, the two management committees had a very productive conversation in which we discovered that the headhunter had generated the meeting by telling each firm’s management committee that the other firm was interested in merging with their firm, when in fact neither firm had given any thought of merging with the other.
JW had simply hired the headhunter to find a few lawyers for the new JW Austin office, and the headhunter thought really big and found a “creative” way to get the two groups together. Carla Cox was on the SCW Management Committee, and for those of you who knew Carla at JW, you can imagine the choice words she had for the headhunter when we discovered what he had done! In any event, the merger was successfully completed after many more meetings. Without the headhunter’s not completely honest approach, I doubt there would have ever been any merger discussions between the firms.
How are you enjoying your time in retirement? Any advice to those thinking about retiring soon?
I have only been retired for seven months, but so far, I have really enjoyed my retirement. As in the previous seven years, Debbie and I spent this past summer in Crested Butte, where I hiked and biked and enjoyed being out of the Texas heat. I will be back in Crested Butte for 3-4 weeks in the winter to ski. I also have six grandchildren under the age of four, which seems to require a lot of grandparenting time.
The one thing I have enjoyed most in retirement is the ability to control my own schedule. I knew that would be enjoyable, but it is even better than expected.
The pieces of advice I have for those thinking of retiring are:
- Don’t schedule things in your retirement before you retire. In fact, keep your schedule in retirement open at first and be very thoughtful about committing to new things to make sure you make a smart decision. I received this advice from my brother, and so far, it seems to be sound.
- Don’t be afraid to retire. It can be really fun!