Mace & Jones’s Ian Hodgkinson mulls over new age discrimination legislation

DURING the recession, more senior partners in professional services firms are looking to work longer to rebuild their pension.

But they will be faced with compulsory retirement ages, often as low as 60. Hence professional firms are bracing themselves for a glut of challenges to compulsory retirement, under the new age discrimination legislation.

A tribunal has already found that compulsory retirement at 65, under the partnership deed, was directly discriminatory on grounds of age. But it said it could be objectively justified and accepted a compulsory retirement age was required.

This was on the grounds of ensuring that associates stay with the firm and are offered partnership after a reasonable period. The tribunal accepted this can be necessary for a "congenial and supportive culture" by avoiding confrontation with under-performing partners close to retirement.

Importantly, while the tribunal held that a rule requiring partners to retire at a particular age was potentially justifiable, it added there was no basis for an assumption that performance would decline at 65.

In firms without a “congenial and supportive” culture to preserve, senior partners may be tempted to threaten a claim to get a few more years’ income, or a pay-off.