Employment & Labor Insider

Asking about family history is usually illegal. Continue Reading ›

Employers, take warning! Continue Reading ›

What's good for the goose . . . Continue Reading ›

Even if the employee doesn't qualify. Continue Reading ›

Know where your rights as an employer begin and end. Continue Reading ›

A good reason to swear off gossiping at work. Continue Reading ›

Another federal appeals court will soon decide whether Title VII prohibits sexual orientation discrimination. Continue Reading ›

Whenever I think I've heard everything, I hear something else. Continue Reading ›

A boss who grabs an employee's breasts without her consent is indeed guilty of sexual harassment. Continue Reading ›

(Not an actual letter from Mr. Kleber.

Last week, I received a scathing comment from Dale Kleber, a Chicago-area lawyer and a plaintiff in an age discrimination lawsuit. Mr. Kleber did not like my gut reaction to his lawsuit, which was based on an article that I’d read in The Washington Post. It appeared to me that Mr. Kleber — then a 58-year-old lawyer with roughly 30 years of experience, including experience as a CEO of a dairy industry trade group, Chief Legal Counsel, and General Counsel — was rejected for a low-level in-house staff attorney position because he was overqualified for the position, not because he was 58 years old.

Prompted by Mr. Kleber’s comment, I have now read the court papers (well, a lot of them, anyway).*

*Mr. Kleber’s case is currently on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, but it is still in the very early stages. For you procedural nerds, I’ve included a summary at the end of this post. Non-nerds can skip it.

Now that I know more about Mr. Kleber’s lawsuit, I haven’t changed my mind. In other words, I still think he was rejected for being overqualified.

Can’t “overqualified” be a code word for “too old”? Yes, but not necessarily. Read on! Continue Reading ›