Women say Raymond James discriminates, retaliates

Three women who worked at units of Raymond James Financial Inc. have filed this lawsuit against the company in federal court in Chicago.They accuse Raymond James of discriminating against them based on gender, age and race by denying them opportunities for training and advancement, paying them less than men for comparable work, subjecting them to sexual harrassment and retaliating when they complained. The plaintiffs, Beverly Beren, Bernadette Seprish and Pahoua Lee, worked for Raymond James in Atlanta and in St. Petersburg, but they want the suit to be declared a class action including many if not most of Raymond James' women employees.

The suit was filed by Stowell & Friedman, a Chicago law firm noted for bringing discrimination lawsuits against brokerage firms.

Comments

The law firm representing the plantiffs is Stowell & Friedman, LLC at (312) 431-0888. I strongly encourage you to contact them just to discuss your situation. You can ask for Jasmine Simmons or Ethan Zelizer.

[Anoonymous]

If you believe there should be more names on that list and more women who should come forward, you can call attorneys representing the women and discuss both items. I would strongly suggest acting -- even if only in that limited capacity.

[L]

There are several other names missing from that list of men, and quite a few more women who should be joining this lawsuit.

[B]

I was a VP in the asset management group and worked for the company for over 10 years (I am a male). I saw some ridiculous behavior of senior management over my tenure at RJ. A large share of this was directed at females. Watch out for the Harvard Mafia.

RJ - you are going down!

Too many women have had to deal with the RJ culture that overtly discriminates against women. What could be more obvious than to have Tom James put his twenty-something old son over HR. Get real! He can't help you now.

[withheld]

Todd - we would not expect anything else coming from the mail perspective at RJ, would we?

[Todd]

I have worked at Raymond James for 7 years and I have worked at several different areas within my large department. In every instance my supervisor has been a well-qualified woman and at most meetings I attend I am either the minority or close to it. It sounds like we have some bitter people here, who are making excuses for their inadequacies with frivolous discrimination lawsuits.

[Sammy]

I am thrilled that somebody has come forward to speak about the gender issues at Raymond James. My job was conveniently eliminated but there's a guy there now doing the same job. It was common knowledge that we were there only so they could say we were there.

[Vickie T.]

This doesn't surprise me at all. I worked at Raymond James for five years and I never felt that women could thrive there. If you are as talented (or more talented) as a man but continually get treated less favorably than him, what else can it be? I saw three kids with less experience and fewer credentials leap frog over me because they were golden boys. I was in my early 40s and considered a superstar before I got to RJ. When I arrived, the male management at RJ thought I was just an old maid. Luckily, not all places are like RJ and life goes on.