Sidley Austin Pays $27.5 Million to Settle Age Discrimination Suit

10/18/07

In its suit, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which brought the case against Sidley Austin, charged the firm with discriminating "based on age when it demoted or forced the retirement of 32 partners in 1999, before its merger with New York's Brown & Wood two years later," says an article on Law.com.

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The EEOC's suit also said that "most of the class members were over 40 (triggering coverage under the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act, or ADEA) and were allegedly downgraded because of their age."

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David Richards, one of the lawyers Sidley forced out, said in a newspaper interview that he was referred to as "deadwood" by his former colleagues because of his age.

Along with paying $27.5 million in settlement fees, the law firm is "barred from requiring partners to retire at a certain age." Sidley Austin will also acquire former White House counsel and former chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Abner Mikva as its "independent monitor...to field and investigate any future complaints about its retirement policies during the length of the consent decree."