Employment law attorney Cara E. Greene writes about Challenges to Law Firm Mandatory-Retirement Policies. This article originally appeared in Law Journal Newsletters’ Accounting and Financial Planning for Law Firms, February 2007. For more information, visit www.ljnonline.com. Authored with Gary Phelan.
A 2006 survey report indicated that 57% of law firms with 100 or more attorneys have mandatory retirement age policies. See, L. Jones “Pitfalls of Mandatory Law Firm Retirement,” National Law Journal, May 24, 2006. But legal challenges to mandatory retirement policies at law firms are likely to become more common as baby boomers reach retirement age.
The debate over whether a law firm can have a mandatory retirement age has focused on the threshold question of whether the “partner” is deemed an “employer” or an “employee.” For each class of lawyer, this article explores possible legal remedies.
