Morgan Stanley is being hauled into court by a former field trainer who contends she and another Black woman were the only two field managers who lost their jobs amid an internal reorganization.
Berdina Moore-Bonds sued Morgan Stanley on Wednesday in federal court in New York over allegations of race, sex and age discrimination and retaliation over her termination from the wirehouse in 2023. The suit says Moore-Bonds was working as a field learning manager overseeing other trainers for Morgan Stanley's Central region when the firm embarked on an internal reorganization.
At that time, Morgan Stanley had seven regional divisions. The overhaul eliminated the central division and two others — Mid-Atlantic and New England, according to the suit.
But only two regional field learning managers lost their jobs, and both were Black women, according to Moore-Bonds. The suit alleges the third field learning manager whose division was eliminated, a white man, was eventually reassigned to the firm's Pacific Coast region.
"Consistent with its pattern and practice of discrimination, Morgan Stanley protected and retained the younger, white male FLM initially slated for termination, but terminated the older Black females," according to Moore-Bonds' complaint.
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A Morgan Stanley spokesperson said, "We vigorously deny the allegations in Ms. Moore-Bonds' complaint and look forward to defending ourselves in the appropriate forum."
Moore-Bonds is being represented in the dispute by Stowell & Friedman of Chicago and Ben Crump Law of Pennylvania. Lawyers from the firms did not return requests for comments.
Both Stowell & Friedman and Ben Crump Law have a long history of pressing discrimination cases against large wealth managers. Stowell & Friedman, for instance, sued Morgan Stanley's industry rival
Stowell & Friedman and Ben Crump Law are also suing Morgan Stanley in a case brought in 2023 by Anthony Fletcher, a Black recruiter enlisted by the firm to help it hire minorities. Fletcher, whose case remains open, accused Morgan Stanley of limiting him to working with only certain types of job candidates, denying him commissions for people he did recruit and underpaying him, among other things.
Morgan Stanley has been the subject of a series of discrimination suits dating to at least the 1970s, according to Moore-Bonds' suit. The firm
Some of the cases against the firm have been dropped, presumably after being settled out of court.
The outcome of the settlements is almost impossible to know because most are accompanied by
Underlying many of the disputes are statistics showing the brokerage workforce — long dominated by white men — doesn't mirror the diversity of the general population.
In her lawsuit, Moore-Bonds said Morgan Stanley had plenty of opportunities to move her into higher positions with more responsibilities, but that she was passed over at almost every turn. Moore-Bonds said her path to Morgan Stanley led through Dean Witter, where she began working in 1987 as a marketing assistant. Dean Witter was bought by Morgan Stanley about a decade later.
Around the time of the acquisition, she was made a field trainer and entrusted with helping financial advisors and branch managers learn about the firm's products, technologies and services.
The suit says Moore-Bonds watched as other trainers, all of them white, were made managers following Morgan Stanley's acquisition of Smith Barney, which took place between 2009 and 2013. After being dissuaded by a manager from applying for a project manager position, Moore-Bonds submitted a complaint to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, often a preliminary step to filing a formal lawsuit. Moore-Bonds said she then suffered retaliation.
She was promoted to a training manager in 2021, working with a team of remote trainers throughout the U.S. Moore-Bonds said the position gave her insight into how Morgan Stanley didn't take its pledges to diversify its workforce seriously.
Around the time she was named field learning manager for the firm's Central Region, according to the suit, she joined the regional division's diversity, equity and inclusion committee. Representatives of the committee were asked to visit historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, to find well-qualified candidates for joining the firm.
"However, it became apparent this scheme was only designed to create the appearance of fairness and that the Firm had no intention to hire Black HBCU students as FAs," according to the suit. "Of the many talented and well-qualified Black students who participated in the HBCU program, Moore-Bonds is not aware of any Morgan Stanley hired as FAs."
After Moore-Bonds lost her job as field learning manager for Morgan Stanley's former Central region, she applied for the Pacific Coast role that eventually went to her white colleague. That Pacific Coast division, according to the suit, had subsumed the Central as part of the internal reorganization, and Moore-Bonds was already familiar with much of its territory and personnel, according to the suit. When she was denied that job, she applied for others but was rejected "due to her race and in retaliation for her complaints," the suit says.
Moore-Bonds' suit seeks compensation for lost earnings and benefits, as well as compensatory and punitive damages, among other things.
