Law Articles
To search for a particular term please use the following search box.
Law Topics
Click on a Topic to see available articles for that topic.
- Accidents
- Administrative Law
- Admiralty Law
- Articles
- Banking
- Bankruptcy Law
- Canon Law
- Case Law
- Civil Law
- Civil Rights
- Class Action Lawsuits
- Commercial Law
- Common Law
- Comparative Law
- Constitutional Law
- Consumer Law
- Contracts
- Corporate Law
- Courts
- Criminal Law
- Cyber Law
- Dispute Resolution
- Employment Law
- Equity
- Evidence
- Family Law
- Fiduciary Law
- General Practice
- Government
- Health Law
- Immigration Law
- Insurance Law
- Intellectual Property
- International Law
- Jurisprudence
- Labor Law
- Law and Economics
- Maritime Law
- Military Law
- Natural Law
- Personal Injury Law
- Philosophy of Law
- Property Law
- Public Law
- Real Estate Law
- Social Security
- Space Law
- Statutory Law
- Tax Law
- Traffic Law
- Trusts and Estates
- Water Law
Return to Law Dictionary Index
Employees File Sex Discrimination Lawsuit Against Smith Barney
Source: Business Wire
Published: March 31, 2005
Four female financial consultants filed a national class action lawsuit Thursday in federal court in San Francisco, charging sex discrimination at Smith Barney, the retail brokerage arm of Citigroup, which is the nation's largest financial institution.
The lawsuit, Fassbender Amochaev v. Citigroup Global Markets, Inc., d/b/a Smith Barney, Case No. C051-298 (PJH) (N.D. Cal.), charges that Smith Barney has engaged in a pattern and practice of gender discrimination against its female financial consultants in account distribution, sales support, compensation, and other terms and conditions of employment throughout the company.
"Wall Street still hasn't gotten the message that women are not second-class citizens," said plaintiffs' attorney Adam T. Klein of Outten & Golden LLP of New York, New York. "As long as investment banks and brokerage firms continue to discriminate against their female employees, courageous employees like the plaintiffs in this case will continue to fight back."
The women allege violations of federal and state laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. They are represented by attorneys from Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP; Mehri & Skalet, PLLC; and Outten & Golden LLP.
Plaintiff Renee Fassbender Amochaev, a former Smith Barney financial consultant from Smith Barney's Santa Rosa, California office who has been in the financial services industry since 1999, stated, "Despite my demonstrated strong performance and knowledge of the clients involved, Smith Barney denied me the opportunity to manage millions of dollars worth of assets that it instead gave to men with no greater qualifications than me."
The complaint charges that, among other things, Smith Barney discriminates in the account distribution process, routinely assigning smaller and less valuable accounts to female brokers, including those who outperform their male counterparts; provides women with less sales and administrative support than it provides to men; and maintains a corporate culture hostile to female professionals.
Read Full Story at Business Wire