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Proactive Retirement Planning 

The Pinnacle Program is an exclusive three day retreat designed for AmLaw 50 lawyers. Define your post-law purpose, create your transition strategy, and build an actionable plan.

Created and facilitated by an AmLaw 20 attorney. 

As Seen In

A New Approach to Retirement Planning 

 

You have reached the pinnacle of your career.

Retirement is inevitable. How you approach it defines the outcome. Instead of years of fragmented decisions, Pinnacle gives attorneys clarity and continuity in a single, structured weekend.

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Why Pinnacle? 

Leave law on your terms and transition powerfully into your next chapter.

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Discover New Purpose

Create a plan that's focused on agency & personal interests. 

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Create a Mosaic

Balance growth with meaningful engagement & leisure.

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Execute with Clarity

Step confidently into retirement with certainty and purpose. 

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Maintain Integrity

Ensure that your reputation and your firm's remain intact.

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Protect Your Clients

Preserve client relationships with a clear transition plan.

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Connect with Peers

Gain perspectives from a select cohort of high achievers.

Program Overview

3 Days That Shape Your Next 10 Years

Proactive, strategic planning over the course of 3 days makes a significant difference for the decade ahead. Design a plan that excites you, honors your family, and lets you leave at the top—on your terms.

Welcome & Rethinking Retirement

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Connect with fellow participants at a welcome reception. Reframe retirement as graduation—a launch, not an ending. Explore why traditional retirement falls flat for high-achievers. Define your personal goals for the weekend in an energetic and supportive group setting.

Why Retirement Disrupts Our Sense of Self

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Deep dive into personality assessment results and exercises that help you determine personal values and aspirations. Identify what truly energizes and fulfills you beyond professional achievements. Uncover your authentic self through proven frameworks including how to discover your purpose, achieve flow state, and formulas for resilience. 

Create A Balanced Lifestyle in Retirement

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Evaluate six critical areas of life fulfillment: physical energy, emotional relationships, mental engagement, spiritual peace, relationship with financial resources, and rhythms of daily life. Score your current state and identify key areas for improvement and growth.

Explore Ideas, Expansion & Growth

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Integrate insights through ten year visioning exercises and lateral thinking workshops. Explore proven areas of engagement and contribution from past participants. Use our four-grid framework to connect interests, organizations, roles, and audiences—with curated ideas and resources to expand your thinking and generate concrete possibilities for your next chapter.

Practical Implementation & Action Planning

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Build concrete 30-60-90 day action plans with accountability structures. Identify key milestones for each quarter as you design your offramp and taper year, including how to announce your retirement internally and externally. Address practical considerations: digital presence, strategic networking, and planning appropriate thanks and celebrations.

Ongoing Support & Coaching

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Stay on track with four group follow-up sessions and four individual coaching calls. Get answers to emerging questions, refine your strategic action plans, and gain fresh insights as you implement your plan.

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Pinnacle Program Registration

Limited to 25 accomplished attorneys
 
→ Discover what fulfills you professionally and how to apply it beyond your legal career
→ Leave with a personal strategic plan for your next chapter
→ Transform uncertainty into clarity using proven frameworks

 
Details:
Next Retreat: April 16 - April 19, 2026
Location: The Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa

Frequently Asked Questions

Where are the programs held?

Pinnacle Programs are held in Tucson, Arizona in the spring and Washington, D.C. in the fall. 

Can my spouse or partner attend the program?

Yes. Spouses and partners are welcome and encouraged to attend. Planning together ensures you're aligned on your vision for the future. The fee for spouses is 15% of the primary participant's fee.

Your spouse can also stay at the resort without attending sessions. Participation in group meals is encouraged for a nominal fee.

What if I'm not sure about my retirement timeline?

Uncertainty about timing is common. Our process helps you determine the optimal timeline and transition approach for your practice and personal circumstances. Counterintuitively, setting a tentative target date—even if it changes—accelerates clarity. Many clients find that our planning process reveals exactly when and how to make their transition.

What if I don't know what I want to do in my Second Act?

Not knowing what comes next is exactly why our program exists. Our structured brainstorming and vision development process is specifically designed to help you discover possibilities you might not have considered. We work with many clients who start with no clear vision of their next chapter.

Is the Pinnacle Program appropriate for people still working or fully retired?

Yes, we work with both. Most clients engage with us while still practicing, using the process to design both their transition and life after law. Others come after retirement to optimize their next chapter. Both approaches are highly effective.

What's included in the Program Fee?

The program fee includes pre-work exercises to complete before arrival, the welcome reception Thursday evening, breakfast and lunch Friday through Sunday, and a group dinner Saturday night. You'll work with four expert facilitators: Elizabeth Zelinka Parsons, David Parsons, and two senior executive coaches. You'll also receive a comprehensive written report with extensive resource links.

Following the retreat, you'll receive four group follow-up sessions and four individual coaching sessions with certified executive coaches.

Travel and hotel accommodations are not included.

What are the benefits of the group format?

The group setting creates peer learning, diverse perspectives, and powerful insight through shared experiences. Hearing others' stories often sparks breakthroughs you wouldn't reach alone. You'll also build meaningful connections with fellow participants that extend well beyond the weekend.

What about sensitive personal information?

You control what you share. While you'll work on your materials alongside others, there's no requirement to disclose personal or sensitive information. Confidentiality is paramount—share only what feels comfortable.

What professional backgrounds do you work with?

While we have extensive experience with legal professionals (law firm partners and general counsel), we work with successful professionals from many fields. The patterns and challenges are remarkably similar across industries for high-achieving individuals.

What preparatory work is required beforehand?

You'll receive pre-work questions designed to stimulate thinking and several exercises to complete before arrival. Total time commitment is approximately 3 hours—manageable for busy professionals.

When should I engage with the program?

The ideal window is 18 to 9 months before your target retirement date, providing enough runway to organize your transition while planning what's ahead. However, we work effectively with partners at any stage—whether you're planning five years out or have already retired.

Testimonials from Accomplished Professionals

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Elizabeth and David provided invaluable advice to me (and my spouse) as we prepare to enter the next leg of our journey. Our meetings with Elizabeth and David were enjoyable in a beautiful, relaxed setting. But most importantly they provided a unique perspective and manner of thinking about retirement. Their advice ranged from the introspective (very methodically directing discussions about my plans and objectives for retirement) to the practical (e.g., changing over email contacts well in advance).

AmLaw 10 Firm

Partner

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Frame (2)

Elizabeth and David are superb in helping you identify those things that you truly value and love and the range of post-retirement opportunities that could be genuinely fulfilling--and how to utilize your skills and relationships to pursue those opportunities. I left the meetings with a much higher comfort level about how to approach retirement and the opportunities ahead.

AmLaw 20 Firm

Partner

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Frame (2)

I met with Elizabeth and David in late 2019. I had a projected Latham retirement date of June 30, 2021 and a very clear sense that I wanted to continue working in an in-house job after that. My session with David and Elizabeth in Tucson clarified and focused in on the job attributes that I should be seeking, and my own qualities that I should be selling, in my search. They then worked with me on a very specific networking plan intended to provide me with an ever expanding set of connections. They continued to advise me every step of the way, including on positioning myself for every particular opportunity...I had never engaged in such an open-ended, broad-based process, and they were an essential part of it...They were absolutely invaluable throughout, and both have enormous perspective and wisdom. If you are facing a major transition, you should most definitely have Elizabeth and David on your team!"

AmLaw 10 Firm

Partner

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Frame (2)

The retirement planning program developed by David and Elizabeth should be a benefit afforded to everyone as they contemplate that phase of their life. David and Elizabeth are extremely skilled at helping people, individually and then as a couple, explore, develop and refine existing or new ideas for a fulfilling retirement. Then they draw on their complementary skillsets and vast experience in this field to help craft those ideas into a meaningful transition plan. They also offer continued support throughout the implementation phase of that plan, and adapt that support given one’s evolving needs, desires and opportunities. Going through their program will help anyone, regardless of their degree of confidence and self-assuredness, to better know themselves.

AmLaw 50 Firm

Partner

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Frame (2)

I found the program to be an excellent tool for better planning my life post retirement. The personalized, methodical approach used by Elizabeth and David made for both a smart and fun set of conversations, and left me with a solid foundation of considerations to guide me in the future. Importantly, Elizabeth and David are quite knowledgeable about issues applicable to and resources available for retiring professionals in a broad variety of circumstances. Moreover, they invested themselves in getting to know me and constructing a unique program for me, and I found them to be warm and thoughtful."

AmLaw 10 Firm

Partner

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Frame (2)

I have very much enjoyed working with David and Elizabeth on my planning for retirement. I reached out to meet with them even though I am several years from retirement so that I could put some structure around planning for what I hope will be a fulfilling retirement journey after Latham. Our sessions gave me tremendous insight into myself.

AmLaw 20 Firm

Partner

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Frame (2)

I was blown away by how helpful I found the program. Going in, I thought I had a pretty good sense of how I would transition to retirement, but quickly realized how many things are about to change and how those changes would impact every area of life. Elizabeth and David are engaging, entertaining and insightful. Their holistic process touches on everything from what an ideal day would look like, to physical health and wellness, relationships, roles, personal fulfillment, peace of mind, financial freedom and sense of balance. I highly recommend including your spouse. I left after two days with a much greater sense of clarity, purpose and direction, as well as a practical, detailed plan on how to make the most of this exciting next phase.

AmLaw 10 Firm

Partner

Meet Your Coaches

The Pinnacle Program is led by founders Elizabeth Zelinka Parsons and David Parsons. Their combined experience in law, economics, and executive coaching ensures practical, proven insights and guidance as you plan your retirement. 

Lead Facilitators for Pinnacle

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Elizabeth Zelinka Parsons

Elizabeth Zelinka has worked with law firms and individual attorneys in professional development and transition for more than 15 years. Following a successful legal career at Milbank, she created the methodologies behind Zelinka Parsons’ programs, now validated by industry experts and clients alike. Alongside her husband, David Parsons, she co-facilitates programs, leads customized firm workshops, and supports succession planning for leaders. Elizabeth is a published author, a Board Certified Coach, and holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, magna cum laude, and a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from James Madison University, summa cum laude.

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David Parsons

David Parsons is a business leader and entrepreneur with a history of helping successful people succeed in new spaces. Throughout his career, he has worked with executives in real estate development, management consulting, and publishing to develop strategies and optimize business performance. Fluent in four languages, he is a Board Certified Coach who received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Colorado College.

David now works with his partner, Elizabeth Zelinka Parsons, to offer customized talent solutions to AmLaw 50  firms and other businesses. 

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Join Us for the Pinnacle Program

You've invested decades building your career.
Invest 3 days designing what's next.
 
Next Retreat: April 16 - April 19, 2026
Location: The Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa
Want to learn more before you register?

Join Our Webinar on November 12th

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