In December, the Bush administration proposed regulations that would make it easier for companies to change to cash balance plans without setting off age-discrimination suits.

He had consulted other lawyers in the hope of bringing an age-discrimination suit against the company but had been turned away.

Later, I would learn that Susie won an age-discrimination suit when her company tried to give her the heave-ho.

Still, she said, the thought of filing an age-discrimination suit has never crossed her mind.

In addition, she said, she plans to file an age-discrimination suit, claiming that her dismissal was retaliatory.

And the film bluntly makes the point that Mary has been hired to ward off an age-discrimination suit, carrying its messages like a cudgel.

It wants age-discrimination suits heard by a judge, rather than a jury, as is now the case with suits alleging other kinds of discrimination.

For instance, several employment lawyers say they are noticing an increase in age-discrimination suits resulting from the way young managers dismissed older workers.

Mr. Goldberg recently advised a company to settle an age-discrimination suit involving a 25-year-old sales manager who fired a salesman in his 50's.