EEOC’s Inquiry into Mandatory Retirement Age Could Hit Law Firms
Bloomberg News is reporting that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is investigating whether mandatory retirement provisions at Deloitte LLP violate federal employment law. The investigation could have an impact on law firms that have mandatory retirement ages for their parters.
According to Bloomberg, Ronald Cooper, a partner at Steptoe & Johnson LLP who was a general counsel of the EEOC, said that while it’s impossible to predict the outcome, “the EEOC will probably say that a giant operation that calls itself a partnership where individuals have little or nothing to say about the way the business is conducted isn’t likely to be viewed as an old-style partnership of three or four members.”
As a result, those firms could face liability under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act for forcing out partners of a certain age.
