I am an older practicing lawyer and I see I can place my law license on a retirement status. What are the advantages or disadvantages of doing so?

Any lawyer should be very cautious about giving up their law license. There is new terminology now. It used to be if a lawyer didn’t want to practice, they put themselves on what was called inactive status. It was easy to do and then the attorney didn’t have to pay annual fees or take CLEs. The trouble was that if the inactive status went beyond three years, the lawyer could not automatically be reinstated. He had to go through a reinstatement hearing. Although it wasn’t a full reinstatement hearing, it still took time and had some expenses involved. Further, if there was any question or issue of unauthorized practice of law or something that was not done right during that inactive status, a lawyer could be barred from coming back and have their reinstatement denied.