“Tirelessly, but to no avail, Ms. Booker tried to force Morgan Stanley’s leadership, including Gorman, to address the systemic racial discrimination rampant at the firm,” she said.

Morgan Stanley instead hamstrung her efforts by steadily decreasing her budget year over year, according to the complaint, “even though her budget would not amount to a drop in the bucket for Morgan Stanley when compared to the money it threw at other initiatives and the massive revenue the firm generated.”

Booker claims 14 Black managing directors, out of only a few dozen at Morgan Stanley, left between 2017 and 2019, but the bank made no effort to retain them. Gorman’s attitude, she said, was: “If you don’t like it, then leave.”

There was marked contrast with how White managing directors who threatened to leave were treated, she alleges.

‘Good Riddance’
“For Black MDs departing Morgan Stanley, the sentiment at the firm was ‘good riddance’ and ‘glad to see you go,’ rather than, ‘why are they leaving us?’ or ‘how could we do better?’” she said. “In contrast, when White MDs left or sought to leave, the firm made significant efforts to retain them.”

Booker, who joined Morgan Stanley after working as a lawyer, says in her suit that she helped manage on-campus recruitment, drafted an employee handbook, managed the firm’s affirmative action plans, performed community outreach and made public appearances to discuss the bank’s diversity efforts, including in 2008 testimony before Congress.

In her lawsuit, Booker says some of those appearances reflected Morgan Stanley’s use of her as a “token response and symbol of its purported commitment to diversity.

After Gorman became CEO in 2010, Booker says she was “inexplicably” removed from her position as global head of diversity and moved to a new position which focused on financial literacy for minority groups.

That job was eliminated a year later, and Booker says outgoing CEO John Mack created a new position for her as head of the Urban Markets Group where she delivered financial education programs to urban communities. That position was eliminated in December, she says.

Underrepresented
Morgan Stanley isn’t alone on Wall Street in its underrepresentation of African Americans. Of the more than 80 people now listed on the elite executive teams atop the six largest U.S. banks, only one is Black: Citigroup Inc. Chief Financial Officer Mark Mason.