Credit Suisse Securities has been ordered to pay a former broker more than $1.3 million for a dismissal dating back to the 2015 closing of the firm’s advisory business, a Finra arbitration filing said.

The Finra panel yesterday ruled in favor of James D. Garrity, awarding him more than $1 million in compensatory damages and $363,000 in prejudgment interest. The panel also directed Garrity to pay Credit Suisse $34,000 in compensatory damages, netting the career advisor more than $1.3 million, according to the order.

Credit Suisse could not be reached for comment by press time.

Garrity had entered the financial industry in 1989, according to BrokerCheck, spending 10 years at Goldman Sachs, two years at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities, and then 12 years at Credit Suisse when, in October 2015, the firm suddenly shuttered its wealth management business.

“He was one of the Credit Suisse advisors who had been working there for a long time, planning on retiring from there and never going anywhere else,” said his attorney, Barry Lax of Lax & Neville in New York. Garrity ended up joining Morgan Stanley, according to BrokerCheck.

Some 292 brokers worked as financial advisors in Credit Suisse’s wealth management business when the firm suddenly shut it down. Some of those brokers hired lawyers, charged Credit Suisse with breach of contract, wrongful discharge and the illegal forfeiture of their deferred compensation, and pled their cases to Finra arbitrators, with what appears to be universal success, according to some of those lawyers.

Their broker alleged that during the dismissal Credit Suisse told them they had to voluntarily resign, which allowed the firm to avoid paying out $240 million in deferred compensation. Those “voluntary resignations” were noted on the brokers’ Form U5. So far, the Finra panels have agreed that one cannot be told to voluntarily resign and have granted the claimants their deferred comp.

“This was all about the deferred compensation he was owed,” Lax said, adding that’s he’s argued and won eight cases representing 26 brokers so far, with another six to go. “My client and I are both satisfied with the award. It represents a complete victory for Mr. Garrity and is what the panel should have awarded based on Credit Suisse’s conduct.”