Beginning in 1986, Paul Rangel was a sales professional for the pharmaceutical company S-A. Rangel had satisfactory performance reviews until 2010, when S-A issued aggressive new “Expectations” guidelines with sales call quotas and other standards that he failed to meet. After a year of negative performance reviews, Rangel—who was then fifty years old—was terminated as part of a nationwide reduction in force of all sales professionals who had not met the “Expectations” guidelines.
Did S-A engage in age discrimination?
What must Rangel establish to make a case under the ADEA? (This is the RULE of law that you will be applying) Can he meet these requirements? (Your APPLICATION and CONCLUSION.) Explain fully.
Imagine you are an executive working for S-A and have been asked to meet with Rangal's lawyer. What sort of information might you want to gather before going into this meeting? Are there facts that are not given in the scenario that you think are critical to knowing how strong Rangal's case is?