New York Employment Lawyer Blog

The New York State Bar Association has called on all New York law firms to end the practice of forcing retirement when partners reach a certain age. This practice may constitute age discrimination in New York. "Mandatory Retirement-requiring a partnr to leave the firm upon reaching an arbitrary age -is not an acceptable practice."

The New York TImes reports,http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/19/business/19law.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin, that 57% of law firms with 100 or more attorneys have a mandatory retirement age. The New York State Bar's announcement comes on the heels of a law suit brought by the EEOC in Chicago claiming that Sidley Austin practiced age discrimination when it demoted or forced retirement of 32 older partners in 1999. This raises an interesting question of firm management.

Should a law firm work from a corporate model which squeezes out older lawyers so that the younger ones can take more business and earn more profit or should firms reward the experience that comes with age by encouraging older lawyers to remain on the job? I feel the latter is the better option. Law is not purely a business. Law is a profession that must, at times, act like a business. Further, law is a service profession and service is an learned art. Why discard the most learned of our artists just when they have gained the expertise necessary to guide the young attorney? It seems more logical that, in our profession, the most experienced members of the bar should be retained as long as they still hold value both monetarily and other. Law was originally an apprenticeship profession. While most would-be lawyers now gain legal education through formal schooling, almost all will tell you that law school teaches the law while your mentors in working world teach you how to practice it. Practice is an interesting word. It implies incompleteness and potential for growth and improvement. Perhaps we shouldn't be so quick to rid ourselves of our most practiced professionals.