A&O does away with mandatory retirement age

UK firm Allen & Overy has announced that it is doing away with a policy that sets a fixed retirement age of 60 years for partners. A&O is following in the footsteps of Ashurst, Hogan Lovells and Linklaters, which have all abolished the mandatory retirment age, and a similar move is currently under consideration at SJ Berwin, Nabarro and Holman Fenwick Willan. The moves follow the introduction of new retirement laws in October 2011 that prevent employers from compulsorily retiring employees at 65 without full justification. A&O managing partner Wim Dejonghe said: “We are a global institution and there are a great variety of ways in which the careers of our partners are played out. To have an inflexible mandatory retirement age globally that forces partners to leave the firm at a particular point in time no longer made any sense.”

A&O does away with mandatory retirement age legalweek.com Mon, Feb 13, 2012