Cleveland partner Martin Wymer, who serves as Co-Chair of the firm's National Employment Litigation Practice Team, was featured on Bloomberg Radio's "The Final Word" program on April 3, 2008.
Wymer was discussing the proposed settlement by Citigroup Inc., in which the company will pay $33 million to about 2500 current and former female brokers at the company's Smith Barney subsidiary to settle a discrimination lawsuit. The lawsuit, filed in 2005 by four women, accuses company managers of preventing female brokers from competing fairly with men for new accounts, promotions and pay, and depriving women of equal training and sales support.
According to Wymer, "For the 2500 current and former Smith Barney female brokers, when you deduct attorneys' fees and taxes, they end up on average with about $6,000 a piece, which isn't a substantial amount of money for people that make what these brokers make. Some of the components of the settlement are the kind of things companies do anyway—try to ensure that accounts are assigned fairly, without regard to gender."