The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which is suing Sidley Austin Brown & Wood for age discrimination on behalf of 31 partners demoted or expelled in 1999, has moved to compel the law firm to produce a deposition witness to testify about the firm’s specific reasons for changing the partners’ status.
The Chicago firm, which claims the demotions were due to performance, has already produced under seal an exhibit outlining the factors in its decision, supplemented by billings and realization records, historic compensation data and other sensitive information, but the EEOC says the firm’s response fails to provide necessary information about the relative weight assigned the various factors by the individual executive and management committee members who participated in the discussions.
