Centerview Partners to face trial over junior banker’s long hours
Fired analyst Kathryn Shiber said elite boutique should have accommodated her need for sleep over mood disorder
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 that 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.
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https://www.ft.com/content/550bc2e0-2869-4a5d-a677-a66f4c35a7b9
"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"
IMO the ramifications here could actually be considerable. If it can become precedent that long unpredictable hours aren't essential to being an analyst, then firing analyst should become way more difficult...right? Would be nice if someone who understands legal stuff better could chime in and explain if this is in anyway meaningful.
I don’t think the court will rule that extreme hours aren’t (or are) essential.
Rather, it could rule that Centerview (and other banks) must explicitly state job requirements, as opposed to implicitly assuming that candidates will know they’re signing up for being on call 24/7.
This could force banks into either posting absurd disclaimers in their job descriptions (“Expect to work 18-hour days and to be on call 24/7/365”), which media will inevitably pick apart, or to better define policies that could actually help analysts.
alot of offer letters say you're expected to work 40 hrs a week as well, which is obviously not true. having the hours explicitly defined may increase accountability esp in groups that have no accountability
It’s already hard to fire analysts in most firms - or at least it’s very uncommon. Most just don’t get extended past their 2 year contracts.
All this lawsuit would do is scare firms from hiring people with these types of mental issues in the future
Yeah agree here. This lawsuit by her is more of a cash grab than bringing actual change. Everyone knows the culture won’t change. This is just the end of disability hires lol
first georgetown rbc cvp and now this?
it's been a wild couple of years for cvp.
This is like old old news even on WSO. Been going on for a while lol
The new development, as of yesterday, is that this can now go to trial.
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ADA doesn’t protect if you your disability interferes with job performance. Based on the fact that she was reprimanded for logging off early, I think it will be easy to show that she wasn’t available when needed.
It does lol. Her medical note said she needs 8 hours of sleep and she was reprimanded for logging off early at what 1am
This isn’t high school. A doctors note means nothing. All she has is a note saying she is medically unfit to do the job. A doctors note doesn’t mean that the job description all of a sudden changed
Don't think any CVP MD's are tracking this thread for recruiting purposes man!
Well, the court has determined that the question of whether she was actually medically unfit to do her job is not clear.
You are framing it wrong. The ADA protects qualified employees who can perform essential functions with reasonable accommodation. “She wasn't available when needed" is not a legal standard. It is a preference at CVP.
The firm granted a midnight cutoff, then revoked it. That looks like a failed process, not proof of an essential function. If CVP were to win, they must show that all-hours availability for juniors is essential and that a cutoff or rotation creates undue hardship. That means providing job description, staffing models, client or regulatory deadlines, and documented failures when trying alternatives. Are juniors with 2 months experience out of school mission-critical to the deal, and at what capacity? If the answer is no, I don't think CVP's arguments will hold up in court... although I am sure they will settle long before that.
Do you think the likely outcome is that Centerview ends up paying her off (even if her claims aren’t valid) just to avoid having to disclose publicly what their staffing models actually look like?
As much as I love the quote "there is a genuine dispute whether the ability to be at all hours of the night is actually essential to the job of an analyst" and would love to see CVP counsel defend the 'essential'-ness of a neurotic VP relaying spastic formatting and analysis recut comments deep into the hours of the night, don't our banks unilaterally retain the right, per our employment contracts, to fire us at any time for any reason?
I guess the argument is going to be that ableism, racism, etc doesn't fit the grounds for at-will termination, but is it not the easiest argument ever for defense to just be like 'yeah it wasn't a culture fit'. I am obviously not a lawyer. Would love to see this turn into something but seems like a tuffie.
At-will employment does give banks the right to fire at any time for any reason, unless that reason is discriminatory (for example, you cannot fire someone over their race or religion). This covers a disability that the bank can accommodate, though it doesn’t cover one that makes it impossible to do the job effectively.
The follow-up question is then whether not working those hours makes it impossible to do the job effectively. Centerview will argue that it does, since they made a good faith effort to accommodate her and could not. The plaintiff will argue that Centerview did not explicitly state that working 17+ hours daily is a job requirement.
What I can see changing, is banks being forced to disclose job requirements honestly on applications. That will be amusing.
My question from this whole fiasco, is how the hell is "anxiety" an actual diagnosis "requiring" 8 hours of sleep. Before people jump on this, yes, anxiety is real, but getting a Dr note to give to your employer, as someone else mentioned, is absurd. If you're smart enough to get an interview (and job apparently) at a place like Centerview, then the 80+ hour weeks should be well known.
They’re meeting Oct 21 for next steps. Interesting how it will proceed.
I think she has a very good chance of winning. CVP didn’t provide reasonable accommodations.
Notice how several male juniors have passed away in the recent past but it took a white DEI Beckie to just suffer from anxiety and lack of sleep for it to be contested in court.
Jarvis do a background check on the last name Shiber
Ah the eternal victims
Put another way.... the average adolescent man is so emotionally insecure they would rather work themselves literally to death than ask for help while a woman who was moderately inconvenienced but is standing up for herself nonetheless is potentially about to create the guard rails that men disproportionately complain about ad infinitum...
Seems like if she is successful in this case she, and by proxy DEI, will have been quite the value add in your life!
More like society and corporates giving into the whims of a rich white girl who feels entitled to a big payout due to the minor impact her job had on her health for the few months she was employed. There you go, I have corrected this for you. You ain’t no Robin Hood, you are nothing but scammers using their race and gender to get some serious dough.
This is such a joke. Something only a “👏woke👏” person would write. Literally reads like a BPT post on Reddit.
Society doesn’t care about men. They’ll say it, but men are disposable. You are lucky if you have two parents and 2-3 close friends that care about you.
There are a few reasons for this.
First, it’s meaningfully harder for a young man who doesn’t earn as much to find a partner, than it is for a young woman who doesn’t earn as much. The stakes are higher.
Second, young men tend not to get the same favoritism in hiring and education, meaning that, all else equal, they’re more likely to have to take what they can get.
Third, young men aren’t entitled to the same social protections, and are seen by many as more disposable/less in need of cushiness.
The irony with all of this is that, in some ways, these phenomena make women more expensive per-hour for banks to hire. With lawsuits like this making this clearer, I could easily see, in a post/DEI world, banks hiring more men.
It’s like … why pay a U.S. citizen $20/hour in agriculture, and risk them complaining, when you can pay an undocumented immigrant $6/hour?
I’d be surprised if most women are happy with this trend.
Tides are turning and reaction from CVP and all other banks will be to just avoid hiring types like this girl.
Short term selfish gain for long term pain to her demographic. Classic.
It is a garbage summary judgement decision. The major thing that will happen is that all the job descriptions will be rewritten; nothing will change. In the meantime, both sides will spend 1m or more preparing for trial. This is basically extortion using a law that wasn't designed for this.
Seems incredibly ballsy to sign up for this kind of job with that kind of mental health issue..
You’d be surprised. A meaningful % of Ivy Leaguers today have a mental health diagnosis, and a meaningful % of those go into IB. Most do just fine.
Genuine question from someone who doesn't have an IB background -
How do you not get a mood disorder if you're sleeping less than what you need for months - (usually 7+ hours)?
I do think it happens to be a great character building exercise to go through a hell-week but being expected to not sleep 7+ hours a day during the duration of an employment sounds ridiculous. Even Navy Seals who are in deployment try to get as much sleep as possible unless it's during critical missions or Hell Week training.
Am truly in a bad spot as a result of IB. Developed really bad depression and anger issues and insomnia and am a shell of human being. I never get more than 5 hours of sleep and that’s the direct cause of everything. Trying to get out ASAP but can’t find a new gig.
Really sorry to hear that
That can’t be the norm though right?
Or do you think it’s a matter of how each person handles it ? Like some people go to bed alright and just work while they’re awake
Absolutely awful experience. Quit outright -- winning this round of misery poker simply isn't worth it. But talk to your bosses first, b/c they can probably give you a breather. Sleeping pills to reset your schedule can help.
Had a friend who went to LGA and got on the next flight anywhere to reset his body
I think it's just genetic.
In 2019 I slept for ~4 - 6 hours a night while personally losing over $10,000 a day as part of a turnaround we were doing.
It was a bit depressing but other than that it wasn't too bad. I don't really remember that much though lol
Following this and the P72 lawsuit very closely
any gofundme for Centerview's counsel?
I tipped my MD and landlord too much already after bonus season, otherwise I’d pitch in for CVP
I'd pitch in. Seems like they could use it!
I would pitch in, but I need to support my retired parents who are struggling with high grocery and utility costs.
And people wonder why the gender pay gap exists…
incel alert
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/59850397/shiber-v-centerview-partners-llc/ this is the court document, really good read! a lot of name dropping!
Too many docs. Tldr anyone?
Effron has to call his best friend Hilary for help.
Super Gen A.
I get the industry sucks from a work life perspective. But everyone KNOWS what they're signing up for. And the down side of that is only there with the upside.
For her to think she's privledged enough to try to work around that because of a doctors note should make everyone who has to live IB life week in and week out upset.
A doctors note??? What does she think this is? elementary?
lol watch an Analyst who complain about the hours and try to submit a doctors note for her "mood disorder" get the biggest bonus of the year here...
Upset about this
Update as of 1/22/26. Trial set for 02/23/26. Latest filing in January said they met but Centerview has refused to provide comps for similar employees as well as their hours.
To elaborate. Centerview provided this info already for the analyst class in 2020-2022 for that time period, however KS's lawyers are now asking for that info through YE 2025 (so they can determine back pay), but Centerview is like "thats not relevent".
Update as of 01/27/26. Centerview is providing the comps for analysts, but refusing to provide comps for KS's analyst class who at this point have been promoted to Associates. KS's is claiming she would have been promoted to associate and her backpay/comps would now been in line with an associate, however Centerview is arguing that there is no guarantee that she would have been promoted and it's all speculative. Also, all of these comps are sealed as Centerview does not want the data to be public.
Lots more information just dropped!
Spent a lot of time doing art / posting on tik tok
Comparing the jury instructions and voir dire questions is quite instructive. Centerview is focused on the question of whether she could actually do the job, while her lawyers are focusing on technical details of the disability laws.
I donated $20 worth of pacer docs to courtlistener, so feel free to read them yourselves!
btw, there is no charge for accessing up to $30 in pacer docs per quarter
Would love it if others started contributing! You can download the RECAP extension and all the filings you obtain get archived
Where’s the link
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/59850397/shiber-v-centerview-partners-llc/?order_by=desc
I'm curious to see if they'll settle. A lot of these cases do, but here she's claiming lifetime damages. A good magistrate judge can settle most of these, but CV might have a no settlement policy and can clearly afford to lose.
This case is of particular interest to me. I've been following the research on serious health risks regarding on-call work.
A simple prompt of "what are the serious health risks of 24/7 on-call work, even if there are no calls" consistently yields concerning health risks.
What is an employers duty of care and informed consent around this kind of work?
bump
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