A former Armstrong Teasdale equity partner can continue pressing age discrimination claims against the firm over its mandatory retirement policy, a federal judge in St. Louis ruled Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey shot down Armstrong Teasdale's bid to dismiss claims brought against the Am Law 200 firm by former partner Joseph von Kaenel, now 72, under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Von Kaenel alleges he was unfairly pushed out of the firm in 2014 under a mandatory retirement policy that requires partners to leave Armstrong Teasdale at the end of the calendar year in which they turn 70.

Armstrong Teasdale argued in a November brief that von Kaenel waited too long to lodge an age discrimination complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission—a prerequisite for bringing an age bias lawsuit in court. Von Kaenel went to the EEOC on Dec. 11, 2014, but Armstrong Teasdale maintained that by then he had missed a 180-day time limit that started in March 2014, when he was told he'd have to leave the firm at the end of the year.