A former Morgan Stanley executive claims to be the victim of reverse discrimination in a lawsuit accusing the firm of wrongful termination after he was replaced by a colleague who's a Black woman.
The suit, filed this week in federal court in the Southern District of New York, was brought by a white executive named Kevin Meyersburg, who was Morgan Stanley's head of executive services until May.
Meyersburg accuses the Wall Street investment bank of violating civil rights statutes protecting against workplace discrimination, including the New York State Human Rights Law and the New York City Human Rights Law.
The former executive's termination "was the result of the firm's attempt to comply" with internal hiring and promotion policies aimed at diversifying employment, according to the complaint.
Meyersburg is requesting that Morgan Stanley be ordered to reinstate his position and pay damages.
A Morgan Stanley spokesperson declined to comment.
The complaint states that Meyersburg, who previously spent 15 years at E*TRADE, was in charge of a profitable wealth management business when Morgan Stanley ended his employment.
The Executive Services group he led managed around $5 billion in assets and added 3,000 new accounts during Meyersburg's tenure, according to the complaint.
In May, during a meeting with his boss, Meyersburg was "confused and bewildered" after learning that his employment was being terminated and that the managing director of Morgan Stanley's financial wellness team would take leadership of the Executive Services group, the complaint states.
The suit alleges that the executive who replaced Meyersburg was less qualified for the position.
Meyersburg's boss informed him "that the termination decision was not based on his performance but could not explain to Meyersburg why the decision had been made," the complaint states.
Lawyers representing Meyersburg cited a 2021 Morgan Stanley diversity and inclusion report in which the firm committed to "improving representation" in its workforce.
Employee demographic metrics — including hiring, promotion and compensation data — are reviewed regularly "to identify gaps, shape our strategy and goals, and evaluate progress against those goals," the report stated.
Louis Pechman, a lawyer representing Meyersburg, said in an email that Morgan Stanley firing his client and promoting a minority employee is "irony," considering Meyersburg's efforts to expand diversity at the firm.
Meyersburg helped run an internal program called Inclusive Leadership, and his Executive Services team at Morgan Stanley scored highly on an annual survey gauging employee feedback about the firm's core values, including diversity initiatives, according to the complaint.
"Morgan Stanley unfortunately confused diversity with reverse discrimination. They are simply not the same," Pechman said.
Sharon Parella, a lawyer who represents employees in disputes with their employers, was critical of the lawsuit.
She said that the case appears to have been brought because the Morgan Stanley employee who replaced Meyersburg is Black, and that if the logic of the lawsuit were applied broadly, it would result in the end of programs seeking to increase gender diversity, which would likely have little support.
"If this can't be done for Black people and people of color, then are we also going to agree to stop all programs on behalf of women and people in other protected categories?" Parella said.
The case against Morgan Stanley comes amid increasing legal challenges to corporate policies that commit companies to initiatives aimed at supporting diversity.
Particularly over the last year, politicians and lawyers across the country have taken steps to
In New Orleans, a federal appeals court is
And in California, a federal judge in May
For Morgan Stanley, the suit represents the flip side of accusations that the firm has recently faced related to diversity. In 2021, Morgan Stanley
