On April 6, 2010, the New York Law Journal reported on a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against Kelley Drye & Warren contending that the venerable firm had violated the Federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act by stripping a 79-year-old partner of his equity share and reducing his bonus.1 The EEOC contended that Eugene D’Ablemont and other septuagenarian partners had been improperly demoted upon reaching the age of 70. Like all good stories, this one has two sides, and Kelley Drye fired back, contending that Mr. D’Ablemont’s demotion had nothing to do with age and everything to do with productivity, citing annual billings of 200 to 300 hours.2 Nonetheless, Kelley Drye dropped its mandatory retirement age for partners and re-equitized Mr. D’Ablemont.
The Kelley Drye story recalls the EEOC’s recent suit against Chicago’s Sidley Austin Brown & Wood.3 Sidley Austin had demoted 32 equity partners to positions as “Senior Counsel,” and opposed an EEOC enforcement proceeding on the ground that the demoted partners had been management, not employees, a position that was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Following this judicial rejection of the firm’s first line of defense, Sidley Austin settled for $27 million.4
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