Tag: mandatory retirement

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Mandatory retirement clauses breach Quebec Charter, rules court

Professional services firms that have mandatory retirement policies and provisions that require partners to divest their ownership shares solely on the basis of age are discriminatory and in breach of the Quebec Charter of human rights and freedoms held Quebec Superior Court in a ruling that has the legal community buzzing over its implications.

In a case that pitted a Montreal municipal and labour and employment law firm against its founder, the decision by Quebec Superior Court Justice Stéphane Lacoste is expected to have wider repercussions than the thorny issue of mandatory retirement, according to legal observers. Following the decision in DHC Avocats inc. c. Dufresne, 2022 QCCS 58, typical arrangements made by professional services firms in succession planning such as “unpartnering” or changing the status of their senior partners while still allowing them to work in the firm may be called into question, added legal experts. Continue reading “Mandatory retirement clauses breach Quebec Charter, rules court”

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Mandatory retirement age for municipal judges not discriminatory

Two municipal judges who sought to stay on the bench beyond the retirement age of 70 lost their legal battle after Quebec Superior Court held that a mandatory retirement age for provincially-nominated magistrates is not discriminatory and is necessary to preserve judicial independence.

But the ruling has not settled the issue of mandatory retirement age for provincially-nominated judges, according to Gérald Tremblay, former batonnier of the Quebec law society. Seven years ago, an Ontario Superior Court judge ruled that a law forcing justices of the peace in the province to retire at the age of 70 was a violation of equality rights guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Justice Strathy, now Chief Justice of the Ontario Court of Appeal, substituted – or “read in” – new provisions that allow justices of the peace to keep working until age 75, subject to the annual approval of the Chief Justice of the Ontario Court of Justice, even though the official retirement age is 65.

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Law firms coming to grips with retirement issues

The figures are stark. It is estimated that nearly 70 per cent of law firm partners are “baby boomers,” according to Hildebrandt International, an international legal consulting firm. In the United States, the latest figures reveal that approximately 400,000 lawyers will reach retirement age at some point within the next decade. Nearly a third of California’s 170,000 active attorneys are older than 55, and 21 per cent older than 60. Closer to home, 8,284 of its 22,500 members are over the age of 50, according to the latest figures from the Barreau du Québec. In Ontario, a startling 42 per cent of lawyer licensees, for a total of 17,850, are over the age of 50, reveals a demographic breakdown from the Law Society of Upper Canada.

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