News Article

Sex-Discrimination Lawsuit Filed Against Smith Barney

New York Times - By Jonathan D. Glater

Published: April 01, 2005

March 31 - Four women filed suit against Smith Barney on Thursday, contending that as employees they were denied business opportunities because of sex discrimination.

The women - one current employee and three former ones - said that because branch managers did not refer clients to them, they were unable to build their business and so were paid less than male colleagues.

They also claimed that they received less sales support than male colleagues, less desirable offices, and less training. After they complained, they said, male colleagues retaliated against them.

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The lawsuit is the latest charging that a sexist culture persists within Wall Street firms, and it is not the first to name Smith Barney. Last summer, agreed to pay $54 million to settle a discrimination lawsuit filed on behalf of about 340 women who worked in a division of its investment bank. In 1996, female employees at Smith Barney filed a discrimination suit that described fraternity-style hazing and physical harassment at one of the firm's branches. That case was settled in 1998.

Thursday's suit focused on the denial of business opportunities. The four plaintiffs asserted that branch managers repeatedly steered clients to male employees. The more clients brokers have, the bigger their portfolios.

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"Branch managers have extraordinary discretion to distribute these business opportunities as they choose, allowing their gender stereotypes and the companywide culture of gender discrimination to influence their decisions," said the complaint, which was filed in United States District Court in San Francisco. "As a result, Smith Barney's practice is to distribute accounts and business opportunities to male financial consultants in numbers greatly disproportionate to those distributed to similarly situated female financial consultants."

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