A contractor who solicited advertisements for Harvard Business Review in New York for four years sued the University earlier this month for age discrimination and breach of contract.

Arthur D. Bobrick sold ads as a contractor in the New York and California markets for the bimonthly publication until 1993. He alleges that he was terminated because of his age--he was 66 at the time--and replaced by a younger employee.

The University is denying the charges, arguing that Bobrick was terminated because of poor job performance, not age. In 1993, the review restructured its ad sales in New York, terminating Bobrick and another contractor and hiring four full-time employees instead.

The other contractor, James Quinn, sued the University, in 1993. That case is still pending.

The Harvard Business Review is a general-interest business magazine owned by Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation.

In a suit filed May 7 in Middlesex Superior Court, Bobrick claims that he was fired even though he had tripled ad sales from the California market and had met all "reasonable expectations" of him.

Bobrick had been hired in 1989 to solicit ads out of his office in New York. At the time he was terminated, he was being paid $12,000 a month as an advance on commissions.

"I performed brilliantly," Bobrick said in a phone interview. "I was the No. 1 salesperson out of 22 salespeople at the time."

Harvard disagrees.

"There's no basis for his claim of age discrimination," said University Attorney Allan A. Ryan Jr. "His termination was based on performance reasons and not age."

Harvard plans to file a formal response to the complaint within the week, Ryan said yesterday.

Job Performance or Age Bias?

At issue is the review's 1993 decision to terminate its two New York contractors and replace them with a four-person, full-time staff.

Bobrick's New York responsibilities were assumed by the review's new Manhattan office, and his California duties were taken over by a new contractor, Barbara Bella and Associates, based in San Francisco.

According to the complaint, Bobrick's contract was renewed three times since he was hired in 1989. His final contract, due to expire June 30, 1993, was terminated on March 12 of that year.