Former Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer partner Lois Moore has dropped the age discrimination claim against her former firm, The Lawyer can reveal.
The news will be a fillip to the firm, which has had to face at least three claims from former partners following the controversial pension reforms that were undertaken in 2006 to get rid of the firm’s generous, uncapped pension scheme.
Two of those claims have now been withdrawn while the news about Moore follows in the wake of a victory for the firm against former insolvency partner Peter Bloxham.
Today the firm announced that it would be applying for costs in the Bloxham case to the tune of at least £100,000. The application comes just 13 days before Bloxham is due to make a decision on whether or not to appeal the judgment in his case.
Star banking partner David Ereira also withdrew his claim against the firm earlier this year, as revealed by The Lawyer (3 September). Like Moore, Ereira was part of an informal group of older partners dubbed the Grey Panthers – an unofficial representative body of partners aged 45 and above during the pensions reforms.
Freshfields turned to regular employment advisers Lewis Silkin on Moore’s case, as they did with Bloxham’s. Advising Moore was Herbert Smith senior partner David Gold.
