Lawyer Loses Age Discrimination Case Over In-House Counsel Job Application Ding
First David Reeves lost the competition for an in-house counsel job, watching the post go to another labor and employment lawyer 16 years his junior.
Now the 56-year-old lawyer has lost the age discrimination case he filed over the job application ding: A Solano County Superior Court grant of summary judgment to the defense has been affirmed by the San Francisco-based First District Court of Appeal, reports the Recorder in an article reprinted in New York Lawyer (reg. req.).
Although Reeves considered himself the more qualified of the two, his paper qualifications couldn’t reasonably be seen as “vastly superior” to those of the Foley & Lardner counsel who was hired instead, the court found.
Plus, his would-be employer, MV Transportation Inc., didn’t offer inconsistent explanations of its hiring rationale. John Biard, its general counsel and chief legal officer, said he and the Foley lawyer “just clicked” and he also was positively impressed by the recommendation she received from another lawyer he knew at the law firm.
None of the three lawyers now works for MV Transportation, the article notes, and all are apparently principals in their own firms, according to state bar records.
