Merrill Lynch settles race bias suit for $ 160M
WASHINGTON — Brokerage firm Merrill Lynch has agreed to pay $ 160 million to settle a class- action race discrimination lawsuit brought by a longtime employee, an attorney for the plaintiffs confirmed Wednesday.
More than 1,200 current and former Merrill Lynch employees could be eligible to take part in the settlement, one of the largest sums obtained from an employer in a race bias lawsuit.
Since the lawsuit was filed in 2005, Merrill Lynch was acquired by Bank of America, where it is now the bank’s wealth management unit.
“We are working toward a very positive resolution of a lawsuit filed in 2005 and enhancing opportunities for African- American financial advisers,” Bank of America spokesman Bill Halldin said.
Lead plaintiff George McReynolds, a black broker who has worked for Merrill Lynch for 30 years, sued his employer, saying it had a segregated workforce, including policies that steered black brokers into clerical positions and reassigned their accounts to white workers.
At the time McReynolds filed the lawsuit, 2 percent of the brokers at Merrill Lynch were black, despite a 30- year- old consent decree the brokerage had signed with the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that required it to increase its proportion of black brokers to 6.5 percent.
Office mangers resisted McReynolds’ attempts to recruit and retain diverse candidates and forced him into a partnership with a “white rookie” that was “highly detrimental” to his career, McReynolds said.
McReynolds suffered a series of early setbacks in bringing the lawsuit.
The federal judge in Chicago handling the case denied a motion to certify it as a class action, a ruling that was affirmed by the 7thU. S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U. S. Supreme Court.
Attorneys representing McReynolds, from the Chicago law firm Stowell & Friedman, tried again after the high court’s 2011 ruling in Wal- Mart Stores v. Betty Dukes.
Though the justices in that case said the Wal- Mart workers bringing a gender discrimination lawsuit against the retailer could not move forward as a class, Stowell & Friedman’s Suzanne Bish said she and her partners sawan opportunity to differentiate the Merrill Lynch matter.
“Factually, our case was much different,” Bish said. “We read the Wal- Mart decision, and our legal team said, ‘ Hey, we have to go back to the court.’ ”
Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner agreed, citing Wal- Mart v. Dukes in his decision to certify a class of current and former Merrill Lynch brokers. The Supreme Court declined to hear the brokerage’s appeal of that decision, leaving Posner’s determination intact.