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Age Discrimination Committee
Welcome to the webpage of the Age Discrimination Committee of the
Senior Lawyers Section of the New York State Bar Association.
The basic purpose of this Committee is to help senior lawyers, as
well as younger members of the bar, to become more familiar with this
area of the law as it may affect their careers and to help
promote changes that will end age-related discriminatory practices
affecting attorneys. As part of this effort, the Committee intends
to continue the excellent work of the Special Committee on Age
Discrimination in the Profession (a link to its January 2007 Report
and Recommendations on Mandatory Retirement Practices in the
Profession, which was approved on March 30, 2007 by the
Association's Executive Committee and on March 31, 2007 by its House of
Delegates, is included below on this webpage).
The Special Committee’s Mission Statement, as set forth in its
Report and Recommendations (pp.1-2), was as follows:
The Committee shall study and report on practices in the profession
that disadvantage lawyers because of age, including those that may arise
from:
- law firm hiring and firing practices
- mandatory retirement policies
- up-or-out” policies
- age-based hierarchical staffing of cases
- policies concerning retaining of counsel
- the fixing of time charge rates
- non-compete clauses, combined with mandatory retirement policies,
that prevent retired attorneys, who otherwise might wish to continue to
practice law for a number of years, from engaging in such practice
- other age-discriminatory practices affecting attorneys, as the
Committee may identify.
The Committee shall take a balanced and objective approach in its
examination of these issues, and its report will take into account the
rationale and perspective of law firms or other legal employers and
their policies and practices in these areas. If reform is needed,
the Committee shall recommend steps to promote changes and end any
age-related discriminatory practices affecting attorneys. The
Committee’s report shall recommend changes in law or policy, where
appropriate, and shall set forth model policies, best practices and
other guidance on these issues, to help facilitate positive changes and
promote a more enlightened attitude on this subject within the
profession.”
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The Report and Recommendations also stated (p.2) that
| “the issues implicated by our Mission Statement were so
important and complex that, given the constraints of time, to attempt to
address all of them in a single report would unduly divert our focus and
delay presentation of our recommendations. Therefore, we focused
our efforts on an issue we felt to be of prime importance (although by
no means the only significant issue): the practice of so-called
‘mandatory retirement’ of law firm partners. However,
as we note in our section contrasting practices in the public sector
with those of private law firms [pp.9-10], the practices employed in the
former – in which age discrimination is clearly outlawed –
provide important insights and suggest areas for future study by this or
other committees.” |
Committee Activity in Review
View Committee Roster
Join
this Committee
View Report on Age Discrimination in the
Profession (PDF Format)
Report and recommendations on Mandatory Retirement Practices in the
Profession
NYSBA Special Committee on Age Discrimination in the
Profession - January 2007
View Web page of the Special Committee on Age
Discrimination in the Profession
ABA Report and Resolution (August 2007)
Legal industry tackles ageism - The Daily
Record, September 24, 2010
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