The three professors hired instead of him are younger and less experienced than Spaeth, who graduated from Stanford Law School and served as a clerk to a U.S. Supreme Court justice in the 1970s, Spaeth’s attorney Lynne Bernebai said.

The college has not yet been formally notified of the lawsuit and denies the allegation of age discrimination, College of Law Dean Joan Howarth said in a statement.

“MSU Law did not and does not discriminate on the basis of age,” Howarth said in the statement. “Mr. Spaeth’s apparent decision to sue MSU Law is mystifying.”

Spaeth applied for the position through the Association of American Law Schools.

Out of hundreds of applicants, MSU interviewed about 30, Howarth said in the statement.

Spaeth didn’t make the cut.

“Upon reviewing the one-page form that Mr. Spaeth submitted to the registry, I see that the areas of teaching interest he listed did not match our hiring needs,” she said. “Therefore, he was one of more than 800 attorneys in the registry — most of whom have excellent credentials — who were not invited to interview.”

Despite working for almost 30 years as a law practitioner and serving as North Dakota’s State Attorney General, Spaeth was denied more than 100 other positions at colleges and universities across the country. Spaeth might add additional colleges and universities to the lawsuit later, Bernebai said.

“I don’t think there’s any explanation for this other than age discrimination,” Bernebai said.

The professors hired at MSU ranged in age from their 30s to 60s, Howarth said in the statement.

Second-year law student Kyle Dysarz has been taught by professors who have been around for decades and some with only a few years experience practicing.

Dysarz said he’s probably learned the most from one of his older professors, who incorporates his knowledge of the bar examination in lectures.

But professors fresh from the field also offer helpful insight, Dysarz said.

“With (younger instructors), it’s interesting to see how things are being applied currently in court or in courts across the country,” he said.

Working with teachers with a range of experience levels also has been helpful for third-year law student Tom Morse.

Alongside hearing “gripping war stories” from a professor who worked in the field for years, Morse is learning to adapt to changes in the field of law from younger instructors.

“The more diverse your education gets, the better off you are,” Morse said.

But discrimination in hiring practices is a widespread problem across the country, Bernebai said.

Spaeth is one of many without a job because of their age, she said.
“This is one of those cases that doesn’t just affect him,” Bernebai said. “In this case, it really shows this fundamental problem with a lot of law schools — that they don’t hire experienced people and it’s really hurting students who come through those law schools.”