Vancouver lawyer John Michael McCormick was a partner of Fasken Martineau Du Moulin LLP who forced to retire at the age of 65 after working 40 years.
He filed a complaint to the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal against the Fasken Martineau’s mandatory retirement policy that was age discrimination and claimed that he is a partner as well as an employee of the firm when he asked to mandatory retirement in 2010 at 65. The tribunal ruled that under the legislation he is an employee of firm and BC Supreme Court upheld the tribunal ruling. Thereafter, BC Court of Appeal overturned those decisions and Supreme Court agreed with the Court of Appeal’s decision.
The issue was whether Mr. McCormick considered as an equity partner or an employee of a firm that covered by provincial human rights codes.
Supreme Court of Canada said “Law firms and other partnerships are allowed to force partners to retire because they are not covered by Provincial Human Rights Codeâ€. However, legal observers expressed their opinion that large law firms and accounting firms obviously be limited liability partnership and partners complaint to human rights for age, gender or other discriminations.
On the other hand, most workers in Canada do not face any mandatory retirement obligation and generally law firm’s partners treated as an employee. Supreme Court found Mr. McCormick was a part of decision maker of the firm that was not considered as an employee only.
The Supreme Court unanimously decided that under the provincial human right codes, a partner can be an employee but in absence of partner (Mr. McCormick), the firm would really affect its decision making. Therefore, Mr. McCormick was a partner of this firm, not an employee and mandatory retirement policy applied to him.
Summarized by Sajal Chowdhury, Â Paralegal Student
The Globe and Mail, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/the-law-page/supreme-court-rules-against-lawyer-who-wouldnt-quit/article18793866/
Sajal, this is a very interesting case as the decision of Madame Justice Rosalie Abella provides many other professional firms that have partnership agreements to retain control on time limits.
According to the Financial Post, firms like “Ernst & Young LLP, KPMG LLP, Deloitte LLP, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, BDO Canada LLP and Grant Thornton LLP all intervened in the case.”
Thank you for the summary.