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Changing Aspects of Law Firm Partnerships

By Leslie D. Corwin
December 18, 2009

In his concurring opinion to Judge Richard A. Posner's Oct. 24, 2002 decision in the much-publicized EEOC v. Sidley Austin, LLP case, commenced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) on behalf of 32 former partners of Sidley Austin, LLP (“Sidley”) who had been “de-equitized” or forced into mandatory retirement, Judge Frank H. Easterbrook commented that the majority had “missed [an] opportunity,” to clarify the “legal status” of law firm partners and to answer the question, “Can large law firms adopt mandatory-retirement rules?” EEOC v. Sidley Austin, LLP, 315 F.3d 696 (7th Cir. 2002).

In January 2007, the Special Committee on Age Discrimination in the Profession of the New York State Bar Association issued a Report and Recommendation on Mandatory Retirement Practices in the Profession, commenting that the practice of mandatory retirement of law firm partners was “of prime importance.” New York State Bar Association Report and Recommendation on Mandatory Retirement Practices in The Profession (January 2007) (the “NYSBA Report”). The changing demographics of today's law firms bear this out. As the NYSBA Report summarized, until only recently, lawyers over the age of 50 were in the minority ' in 1960, the median age of lawyers was 46. By 1980, baby boomers entered the profession and the median age dropped to 39. As the baby boomers grew older, so did the median age in the profession. And the profession has grown exponentially, from 300,000 lawyers in 1960 to more than one million today. This expansion has been accompanied by a dramatic growth in the size of law firms, and changing expectations and goals for retirement in today's society.

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