Welch Consulting Economist, Donald Deere, Ph.D., was the economics and statistics expert for the defense in the case of Powell et al. v. The Dallas Morning News LP et al. where on March 28, 2011 the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas awarded Summary Judgment to the defendants. The case involved 18 plaintiff’s who claimed that a 2004 reduction in force at the Dallas Morning News that eliminated 126 employees violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.  The workforce reduction was widespread affecting multiple positions in various departments across the paper. Dr. Deere’s statistical analysis demonstrated that the RIF hit more sharply at some positions than others.  Dr. Deere accounted for this pattern by using a stratified Fisher’s Exact analysis and demonstrated that the reduction did not have a statistically significant adverse impact on older employees.