Lawyers for hundreds of black financial advisers have reached a US$160 million settlement in a lawsuit accusing Wall Street brokerage giant Merrill Lynch of racial discrimination, a plaintiffs’ attorney said Wednesday.
If approved by a federal judge in Chicago, the payout by Merrill Lynch to around 1,200 plaintiffs would be one of the largest ever in a racial discrimination case, Chicago-based attorney Suzanne E. Bish said.
Speaking from his Merrill Lynch office in Dallas, one of the first plaintiffs from the earliest days of the suit, Maroc “Rocky” Howard, said he wished he and his fellow black brokers never had to resort to litigation.
“Working in a fair environment, I would have made more money than this settlement is going to make me,” Howard, 55, said in a phone interview. “But it is a positive thing.”
Another plaintiff who has since left the firm, Marshell Miller, 58, of Arkansas, also welcomed that eight years of litigation was drawing to a close.
“It’s been a long struggle,” Miller said. “But it was something that needed to be done.”
