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Two recent high-profile executive retirements, both citing the companies' mandatory retirement age policies, raise the question, "How can mandatory retirement age policies be legal?" The truth is neither IBM CEO Sam Palmisano nor Freddie Mac Chairman John Koskinen had to retire. That's because, with relatively few exceptions, most mandatory retirement policies violate the Age Discrimination Employment Act of 1967. So why don't more executives dispute them? "That's because it's much nicer to not work and get paid than it is to keep working," says executive employment lawyer Joe Ahmad of Houston's Ahmad, Zavitsanos, Anaipakos, Alavi & Mensing P.C. "Companies are known to grant waivers to mandatory retirement policies if the executive wants to keep working and the company feels the same way." For more information, contact Mary Flood at 800-559-4534  or mary@androvett.com.