In the wake of an age bias settlement between Kelley Drye & Warren and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the New York State Bar Association is urging law firms to put an end to any age-related mandatory retirement policies. State bar president Vincent Doyle III said that “arbitrarily requiring a senior attorney to retire or assume a lesser status in a law firm solely because of age is not an acceptable policy.”
Five years ago, the state bar’s House of Delegates urged law firms to discontinue age-related retirement polices, and several months later the American Bar Association approved a similar resolution. The state bar report from 2007 is available at www.nysba.com/mandatoryretirement. The Kelley Drye settlement on April 10 involved a policy, which the firm abandoned several years ago, in which partners were required to give up their equity status and begin winding down their practice at age 70 (NYLJ, April 13).
