Comment by weatherlite

> Maybe the base "lawyering" or "nursing" does change but they'll have seen a lot more examples and be able to pattern match quicker.

They've also been burned out by being 20 years in the field. Motivation is a very very crucial thing for success and motivation often times declines due to burnout. Yes said lawyer saw more cases as mine than his younger colleague but he might not be super motivated to fight for me in court as he was 20 years ago, and in any case there are constant tiny changes to laws that make the 20 years experience worth less.

Btw I think 55 year old lawyers/accountants who look for a job face pretty much the same discrimination as software developers - they are expected to be director level or there's not that many jobs for them. This thing is definitely not unique to our profession...ageism is a thing everywhere.