630,000 workers aged 55-and-up joined the workforce last year. But the Equal Employment Opportunity Office reports that age discrimination cases & complaints were up by nearly 30 percent during the same period.

Last week, 146 lawyers signed a letter challenging White House claims that fired Inspector General Gerald Walpin was “confused and disoriented.” The signatories included: three former federal judges, a former Attorney General of the United States, a former Counsel to the President and a former NY Police Commissioner.

“We have known Mr. Walpin as a leading member of the New York Bar for many years. Many of us have seen and heard him speak, including at this month’s meeting of the Second Circuit Judicial Conference and last week’s meeting of the Board of the Federal Bar Council …We note that the signers of this letter include both Republicans and Democrats … But all of us are unanimous in affirming Mr. Walpin’s integrity and competence.”

Gerald Walpin was the first recipient of the American Inns of Court Professionalism Award in the Second Circuit, is counsel to Katten Muchin Zavis Rosenman, and a senior partner of the predecessor firm of Rosenman & Colin for more than thirty years. He was Chairman of the Firm’s Litigation Department for fifteen years.

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Here’s the background on this case from the Associated Press.

“President Obama swept to office on the promise of a new kind of politics, but then how do you explain last week’s dismissal of federal Inspector General Gerald Walpin for the crime of trying to protect taxpayer dollars? This is a case that smells of political favoritism and Chicago rules.”  

“A George W. Bush appointee, Mr. Walpin has since 2007 been the inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency that oversees such subsidized volunteer programs as AmeriCorps. In April 2008 the Corporation asked Mr. Walpin to investigate reports of irregularities at St. HOPE, a California nonprofit run by former NBA star and Obama supporter Kevin Johnson. St. HOPE had received an $850,000 AmeriCorps grant, which was supposed to go for three purposes: tutoring for Sacramento-area students; the redevelopment of several buildings; and theater and art programs.

“Mr. Walpin’s investigators discovered that the money had been used instead to pad staff salaries, meddle politically in a school-board election, and have AmeriCorps members perform personal services for Mr. Johnson, including washing his car.”

Read the entire article here.

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Gerald Walpin & Age Discrimination Cases: First Shots “Fired” at Boomers & Older Workers? originally appeared on Rights Radio™ with Dr. Joyce Starr - An Independent Voice on June 23, 2009.