IBM Age Discrimination Lawsuits

Since 2018, IBM has been hit with a number of lawsuits claiming that the company has intentionally and illegally replaced older employees with younger workers.  In September 2020, former IBM employees filed a complaint in a Texas federal court alleging that IBM violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, and other state laws, by concocting a “fire-and-hire” scheme to make IBM’s workforce younger.  According to the complaint, IBM executives implemented rolling layoffs that targeted older employees, and even gave older workers fake negative performance reviews to justify their terminations.

In another similar lawsuit filed in a Texas district court, a man who had worked for IBM for 24 years claimed that he was terminated as part of a workforce reduction strategy that targeted older employees. In this case, a judge ordered IBM to produce high-level documents and correspondences between IBM senior executives, which purportedly revealed details of the company’s complex plan to rid the company of older employees.

As reported by Techwire, a multi-year long U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) investigation analysis found that between 2013 and 2018, 85.85% of IBM employees considered for layoff were “older workers,” defined by age-bias laws as over 40 years old. The investigation also uncovered internal messages between IBM’s highest-ranking executives, directing managers to employ an aggressive approach of reducing older workers to make room for younger hires.

Steven Tindall

Steven Tindall has specialized in individual and class action employment and class action litigation for twenty-two years. He has been lead or co-lead counsel on dozens of cases involving tens of thousands of employees.

Jeff Kosbie

Jeff Kosbie represents plaintiffs in class actions and other complex lawsuits involving consumer protection, securities fraud and employment law.

Brian Bailey

Brian represents clients harmed by corporate misconduct in complex litigation including employment discrimination, personal injury, data breach and consumer protection cases.

David G. Webbert

David Webbert specializes in employment, civil rights, and complex litigation. He has handled many precedent-setting civil rights and employment cases, including a 3.3-million-dollar class action settlement—the largest civil rights settlement ever in Maine.

Carol J. Garvan

Carol Garvan specializes in employment, civil rights, and complex litigation, and has won victories in important workers’ rights cases, including class action settlements of $5 million and individual case settlements of over $1 million.

Shelby H. Leighton

Shelby Leighton represents clients in employment, civil rights, and complex civil litigation, and has authored several successful briefs in opposition to certiorari in civil rights and employment cases in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Jeffrey Neil Young

Jeffrey Neil Young represents employees and unions in employment disputes, concentrating on age, sex, race and disability discrimination cases, as well as claims for unpaid wages and family or medical leave violations. Jeffrey has handled many important precedent-setting civil rights cases in Maine and around the country.

Joseph Sellers

For over four decades, Joseph Sellers has represented plaintiffs in discrimination and employment cases both individually and through class actions. He has served as class counsel, and typically lead counsel, in more than 75 civil rights and employment class actions.

Brian Corman

Brian Corman’s practice focuses on litigating federal fair housing and employment class actions, as well as wage and hour cases under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Cohen Milstein is a premier plaintiff law firm in the United States, handling high-profile, complex litigation. Cohen Milstein has over 100 attorneys in offices in Washington, DC; New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA; Chicago, IL; Raleigh, NC; and Palm Beach Gardens, FL. The firm has received numerous accolades for its work:

• Law360, “Practice Group of the Year – Class Action” (2017, 2020)
• Law360, “Practice Group of the Year – Consumer Protection” (2018, 2019)
• Trial Magazine, “America’s Most Influential Law Firms” (2018, 2019)
• Benchmark Litigation, “Top 10 Plaintiffs Firm” (2019)
• The National Law Journal,“Winner – Elite Trial Lawyers – Consumer” (2018)
• Vault, “20 Best Litigation Boutiques” (2018)

Johnson, Webbert & Garvan, LLP is a preeminent Maine-based specialized law firm focused on complex litigation in employment, labor, civil rights, aviation, and ethics cases. Johnson, Webbert & Garvan’s attorneys are routinely selected for the prestigious “Best Lawyers in America,” “Super Lawyers,” and “Rising Stars” awards, amongst other honors, and have achieved massive recoveries for their clients over the last 25 years.