Howard Kennedy has been found guilty of disability discrimination after it forced out a 79-year-old partner suffering from tongue cancer. Joint Managing Partner Paul Millett was involved in the botched dismissal. Millett's profile has now, mysteriously, vanished from Howard Kennedy's website and the firm has been unable to confirm whether he still works there. RollOnFriday understands he has left Howard Kennedy. 

Media lawyer Brian Eagles, a salaried partner, was pushed out in 2016 when he refused to accept a new position as a consultant. Eagles had been on a salary of £125,000 for a four day week. Howard Kennedy proposed cutting his pay to £65,000.

When the firm merged with Finers Stephens Innocent in 2013, Eagles was replaced as the head of the media team by a younger partner, Robert Lands. Eagles told the Employment Tribunal that "insufficient courtesy" was shown to him, and that while he “felt it was right for a younger person to take the reins” he "regarded it as a demotion". Not long after the merger, said Eagles, he was sidelined in terms of work allocation, which was controlled by Lands.

In 2015 Eagles was diagnosed with tongue cancer and he underwent two surgeries. For three months after the successful operations he found it "difficult to eat and swallow", and "eating out was naturally something he was not keen to do". He also found it "difficult to speak because his tongue was swollen". As a result his ability to entertain clients was affected for those 12 weeks, and his billings suffered.

 

"Weakness must not be tolerated!"

Howard Kennedy proceeded to 'retire' Eagles for underperformance, having decided that he was "significantly overpaid". Management told him that his presence was preventing the promotion of 35-year-old Gil White to partner in his practice, and that his removal from the partnership was part of a restructuring. Then-Managing Partner Millett agreed under cross-examination that the plan was to replace Eagles with White. When it was put to Millett that "this was not a restructuring, but the removal of the employee he no longer wanted and replacing them with someone else", he said “That is a restructuring”. The tribunal disagreed, and said it was "telling" that Millett "had lacked robust HR advice".

Millett was also criticised for "a somewhat ageist tone in some of the language" he used to describe White, as opposed to Eagles. Millett said she had “enormous drive”, “all the right attributes” and was capable of bringing “dynamism in the department that was not there". When Eagles' employment was terminated following a consultation process which he said was a "sham", HR sent him a draft announcement that he was retiring to be emailed to the firm by Millett. Eagles objected, saying it was not true and that he wanted to carry on working. He also said he "did not accept" that Millett "did not know that he had been diagnosed with cancer" when he was dismissed.

The tribunal ruled that the firm was guilty of disability discrimination, finding that Eagles was dismissed because of his reduced financial performance arising from his disability. It said that Howard Kennedy "did not make a reasonable adjustment which would have allowed the claimant a period of time to get back on track after his cancer treatment". It rejected Eagles' claim for age discrimination, accepting the firm's submission that it was “all about the money”. Meanwhile, mention of Millett has disappeared from Howard Kennedy's website. RollOnFriday understands he has now quietly left the business entirely. 

Eagles, who is now head of media at Burlingtons, declined to comment. A spokesman for Howard Kennedy told RollOnFriday, "We are disappointed with the outcome and that we were unable to reach an agreement with him, and that he felt it necessary to bring this claim". He said, "We are considering the implications of this decision and although we are disappointed that the allowances that we made during and after Brian's period of illness were not deemed sufficient, we are pleased that the tribunal agreed with us on the allegation of age discrimination".