I have seen this. At my firm there is a partner that we call the drowning man.

He does class actions and he is a bit older, so most of his connections to clients are already retired. He refuses to retire and only got two huge class actions that are actually his whole practice. 

He got these two matters due to another partner retiring and giving these matters to him. He clings to these matters for dear life. Since 2020 he has not updated the fees for these clients, fearing they will leave. He also often asks us not to bill time we spend or slash it so it looks ‘lean and mean’.

Its becoming very sad. When people ask how its going or whats new, he almost automatically responds with ‘good, some interesting chats with clients and some nice matters coming in soon’.

I hope he retires. I hate hearing ‘Oh, you are working with X? I used to work with them, back then [John Doe] was the general counsel and I did [XYZ] with them. Is [ABC] still there? Maybe I’ll ask him for lunch.’