Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer accused former partner Peter Bloxham of “horse-trading” yesterday as the bitter age discrimination dispute saw co-senior partner Guy Morton called to give evidence.
In cross-examination, Bloxham – Freshfields’ former head of restructuring – was accused of acting in self-interest after suggesting to the firm a seven-figure compensation package would represent an acceptable compromise. Freshfields declined to make the payment.
In return, Bloxham accused co-senior partner Guy Morton of “casuistry” for looking at the issues in a purely “intellectual [and] economic” way.
Bloxham asserts that changes to the firm’s pension scheme effectively ‘forced’ him to retire and claims the firm offered differing consultancy and retirement packages to 72 partners aged over 50.
Freshfields denies that the reforms were linked to its recent partnership restructuring, which it dubbed the ‘size and shape’ initiative. Under the changes, Morton opted to sacrifice his old pension package and adopt the less favourable index-linked scheme now in place firmwide.
In a statement, Freshfields said: “This is all about fairness. The partner pension arrangements had to continue to work for all concerned – current, retired and future partners. Things were becoming top-heavy in favour of older partners, so a new scheme was proposed, which partners overwhelmingly voted through.”
The case continues.
