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Academic

: The Yin Blog

You decide, sloppy lawyering, or sloppy journalism?

By Tung Yin

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According to this article in the Chicago Tribune, my former employer is being sued for discrimination (again). Last time, it was a claim of viewpoint discrimination; this time, it's age discrimination:

Dobkin, a veteran attorney, claims he was denied a position on the school's faculty because of his age.

"I just think that it is pretty obvious to me and my lawyers that persons over the age of 40 are not considered for entry-level positions. That is widely known in academic circles. Not only do we see this as illegal, but it is a disservice to students who are being taught by professors, with some exceptions, that have never practiced law in the fields they are teaching," Dobkin said in a telephone interview with the Iowa City Press-Citizen.

The article goes on to note that, according to the lawsuit, "the College of Law has not hired a faculty member older than 40 in the past 10 years."

This is either an example of sloppy lawyering, or sloppy journalism. Thomas Gallanis was hired last year, and his CV shows that he earned his BA in 1987, which would generally mean that he was around 42-43 years old when he was hired. Of course, Gallanis was a lateral hire, not entry level, so the claim would appear to be true if it refers only to entry level hires -- in which case, it's sloppy journalism, since this is something that could have been checked pretty easily on the website.

Full post as published by The Yin Blog on August 24, 2009 (boomark / email).