Morgan Stanley Sued by Outside Recruiter Alleging Race Bias

Among the lawyers representing Fletcher is Ben Crump, who won a $27 million settlement with Minneapolis for the family of George Floyd after a police officer murdered him in 2020, and a $12 million settlement for the family of Breonna Taylor, who was killed in Louisville, Kentucky, by police carrying out a “no knock” warrant at her home in 2020.

According to the suit, a Morgan Stanley executive director asked Fletcher to help him make a diverse hire for a client service associate. Fletcher alleges that when he asked what types of skills he was looking for, the executive director said the candidate must be “willing to laugh at his insensitive and inappropriate jokes, and leaned on racial stereotypes about a Black CSA’s ‘cultural fit,’” and demanded that the candidate not look “like they just came into the office from a late-night party.”

Fletcher claims his Black job candidates were regularly required to accept lesser roles than those they had just held at a competitor. By contrast, he alleges, Morgan Stanley routinely hired White candidates into lateral positions or higher posts than their previous jobs.

He claims Morgan Stanley paid him less for his work because of his race and, despite being designated as a “preferred vendor,” he was treated worse than non-Black third-party recruiters. Two weeks after a meeting in which he discussed his treatment and his complaints, he says, Morgan Stanley terminated his contract.

Fletcher reported this treatment to the firm’s board of directors and to Chief Executive Officer James Gorman but never heard back, according to the suit.

The case is Anthony Fletcher v. Morgan Stanley & Co., 23-cv-02769, US District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago).

– With assistance from Max Abelson.