During the height of the #metoo movement, WealthManagement.com posted the results of a survey, which revealed that just under 3/5 (59.4%) of all women in the financial industry have endured workplace sexual harassment. Even as we are now more than a half-decade past that important moment, sexual harassment remains a significant problem in the broader securities and finance industries… and on Wall Street in particular. While concerns about blackballing and other professional blowback are wholly legitimate, you still owe it to yourself if you encounter harassment at work to get in touch with an experienced New York sexual harassment lawyer to discuss your options.
One of the problems plaguing the industry is an attitude from supervisors that subordinates should do anything to keep clients – especially certain clients – happy. In an April 2018 WealthManagement.com report, a woman described an occasion where the CFO of a major client, “in the midst of me having a conversation with… other people, turned my chair around, kissed me, and laughed.” After the woman told her manager about the assault, he responded, “I expect you to do whatever it takes to keep that client,” according to the report.
A New York City broker alleged something even more disturbing in her recent lawsuit. According to a New York Post report, the broker, who worked for a London-based financial services firm and allegedly endured four years of harassment from an equities trader who worked for Citi, sued the bank and her employer earlier this month.
The broker’s alleged harassment, as relayed by the Post, included the trader trying “to barge his way into her hotel room after a corporate event,” deluging her cell phone with “calls and suggestive drunken messages,” and telling untrue stories about the sexual relationship he claimed the pair was having. The texts included typically harassing comments like “What are you wearing?” and “Nice feet”.
In March 2024, the broker filed a formal complaint laying out the inappropriate practices between clients and brokers. According to that complaint, clients used continued business (or the threat of the withdrawal of business) to extract sex. “High-value” traders would “leverage order flows to perpetrate sexual harassment against brokers” and would exchange business for a broker’s willingness to tolerate abuse.
What the Law Says About Quid Pro Quo Harassment
Quid pro quo sexual harassment is any circumstance where someone who holds power over another in a workplace uses that advantage to extract sex in exchange for professional benefit. That “benefit” can be a favorable one (such as a manager issuing a promotion in exchange for sex or a client giving a vendor more business in trade for sex) or refraining from adverse employment consequences. (Examples of the latter might include “sleep with me or I’ll fire you” or “sleep with me or I’ll pull all my company’s business and place it with your competitor.”)
According to the broker, her employer was complicit in this "toxic" arrangement. Her supervisor, who allegedly leveraged the trader’s inappropriate interest in the broker to maximize the business the trader did with the brokerage, told the broker “You need to play the game,” which implied tolerating harassment in exchange for career advancement. When the broker continued to rebuff the trader’s advances, her supervisor complained that “I’m getting less trades because of” you and discouraged the broker from reporting the harassment to “Compliance,” according to the lawsuit. The supervisor also allegedly bemoaned that “this [objecting to harassment] isn’t cool” and reminded the broker that the trader was “important to us.”
Depending on the specific circumstances, the law says your employer can be held legally responsible for the harassment perpetrated by a client, customer, vendor, or other third party. Federal Title VII, for example, requires that your employer knew (or reasonably should have known) about the abuse and did not take reasonable and proper corrective steps to prevent future harassment. The New York State Human Rights Law and New York City Human Rights Law also allow a sexual harassment victim to hold an employer liable if the employer knew or should have known about the harassment but failed to take immediate and sufficient corrective action. The NYCHRL places on employers the same level of legal obligation (and potential liability) for sexual harassment perpetrated by customers, clients, and patrons as it does harassment by non-supervisory coworkers.
A Wall Street or other finance industry professional who endures sexual harassment at work may face many challenges when taking steps to end the harassment. Harassers count on those obstacles -- in conjunction with their power -- to help them perpetuate what they do. One way to strengthen your position and level the playing field is to retain skillful counsel. The knowledgeable New York sexual harassment attorneys at Phillips & Associates are tenacious, effective, and experienced advocates for victims of workplace misconduct. To learn more, contact us online or at (833) 529-3476 to set up a free and confidential consultation.