Kevin Meyersburg, a former managing director at Morgan Stanley in New York, has taken the giant wealth management and investment banking company to court—alleging that he was fired because he’s white.

The lawsuit, filed yesterday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, says Meyersburg was hired in October 2020 as part of Morgan Stanley’s acquisition of E*TRADE in February that year and served as head of executive services.

He alleges that he was pushed out and replaced with a Black female employee who was also a managing director and headed the firm’s financial wellness team since 2019. But he claims the female employee had “significantly less experience and qualifications.”

In backing Meyersburg's claim that he was more qualified, the lawsuit maintains that he created and spearheaded an executive services partner referral program that he said resulted in more than 3,000 new wealth-management accounts and $5 billion in assets under management. He also claims to have grown the firm’s executive services team from 50 to 330 employees and “played a pivotal role in generating profits for Morgan Stanley during a period when other divisions struggled to be profitable.”

Meyersburg, who court documents say is a resident of Bergen County, N.J., alleges he was a victim of Morgan Stanley’s diversity and inclusion program, which he said he had supported for its efforts to improve representation of minorities and women throughout the firm.

Specifically, he claimed race discrimination, which is a federal crime, and discrimination under both the New York state and New York City human rights laws.

He is seeking to be reinstated with back pay and awarded compensatory damages for emotional stress, pain, and suffering, as well as unspecified punitive charges and attorney expenses. Dollar amounts were not mentioned in the court documents.

Louis Pechman of the Pechman Law Group, the plaintiff's attorney, declined comment when contacted.

The lawsuit alleges that Meyersburg was asked just a month before he was fired to suggest staffers who could be terminated for underperformance. Morgan Stanley rejected his recommendations to fire a woman and two minority employees, he said.

Legal experts have noted that lawsuits alleging reverse discrimination have become more frequent in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's rulings against racial quotas.

Last year, the nonprofit America First—which was founded by former Trump administration officials—filed a reverse discrimination complaint against Morgan Stanley with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Morgan Stanley did not respond to a request for comment.