Centerview Partners to face trial over junior banker’s long hours

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A federal court in New York has allowed a junior investment banker to pursue claims that Centerview Partners violated US disability laws when the elite boutique fired her in 2020 after she said she could not work late into the night.

Centerview Partners fired Kathryn Shiber two months into her banking career in September 2020, just weeks after the Dartmouth College graduate showed the firm a medical diagnosis of a mood and anxiety disorder which her medical provider said required eight hours of sleep a night.

The bank initially informed her deal team on an assignment known as Project Dragon that Shiber was to be excused each night at midnight through the next morning. However, a few weeks later she was abruptly summoned to a Zoom call and told by Centerview administrators that she was being immediately terminated and that there was no way she could appeal against the decision, according to her lawsuit.

Centerview maintained the junior analyst job often required working through the night and that the law allowed it to terminate any employees who could not meet that requirement. However, the court said the job requirements were a matter to be resolved in a trial.

“There is a genuine dispute whether the ability to be available at all hours of the day and to work long, unpredictable hours is an essential function of the analyst role,” wrote Edgardo Ramos, a district judge in Manhattan, on Friday as he allowed the dispute to head to a trial.

Working conditions for junior bankers have become an important issue for Wall Street in recent years as the deal boom during the Covid-19 pandemic led to complaints from fresh college graduates that they were being worked excessively hard by their supervisors, often resulting in 100 or more hour work weeks.

Centerview Partners is one of the top New York-based mergers and acquisitions specialists. Court filings and deposition testimony showed Shiber had been criticised by more senior bankers for logging off late at night without seeking permission.

Shiber later went to Centerview’s human resources officer and informed them of her disability diagnosis which resulted in the midnight hard-stop that she was provided by the firm.

Centerview had told the court Shiber should have understood the industry norm of being on call at any time. But the court said Centerview had no formal policy on work hours that it had shared with its employees.

“In the first place, Centerview does not provide a job description or firm policy that supports its position,” the court wrote.

Shiber has asked for more than $5mn in damages. Centerview declined to comment. Lawyers for Shiber did not respond to requests for comment.

The judge ordered the sides to appear in his court later this month to discuss next steps.