Centerview Settles Suit by Ex-Analyst Over Her Need for Sleep

Centerview Partners LLC settled a lawsuit by a former analyst who claimed the boutique investment bank wrongfully fired her for asking to be able to sleep more than eight hours a night.

Jury selection had been set to begin Monday morning in the case, which highlighted the grind culture of Wall Street, especially at junior levels. Centerview had taken the position that a need for a full night’s sleep every night is incompatible with “the essential functions of the analyst role.”

Kathryn Shiber sued Centerview in 2021, claiming she was fired just 10 weeks into a three-year analyst program, shortly after she informed the firm that she had mood and anxiety disorders requiring her to sleep at least eight hours a night on a consistent schedule. Shiber, who had been expected to take the stand during the weeklong trial, was seeking $5 million in damages.

The bank confirmed Sunday that it had settled the case but declined to discuss the terms. A lawyer for Shiber didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the settlement.

“Centerview has said all along that Ms. Shiber’s legal claims have no merit,” a Centerview spokesperson said in a statement. “We were ready to prove that in court, and are confident we would have prevailed at trial. But we are nonetheless happy to put this distraction behind us and focus on delivering for our clients.”

New York-based Centerview was founded in 2006 by veteran dealmakers Blair Effron and Robert Pruzan and has become one of the top mergers and acquisitions advisory firms. It was the sole adviser on Meta Platforms Inc.’s investment in data-labeling startup Scale AI, and also had roles on other big-ticket transactions last year, including Sycamore Partners’ $10 billion acquisition of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.

Shiber, who joined the bank soon after graduating from Dartmouth in 2020, said in her suit that it was a “dream opportunity.” But soon after she started working, she said it became obvious that the firm expected employees to work 24 hours a day or across multiple days “without rest or stopping.”

According to Shiber, she told the human resources department at Centerview of her condition and need for sleep. She was initially allowed to log off between midnight and 9 a.m., but her managers told her a month later that the arrangement wasn’t working.

Shiber, who was working remotely at the time due to the pandemic, said she was fired on a Sept. 15, 2020, Webex video call in which she was told she should have known of the job’s unpredictable hours and took “a coveted spot” that Centerview could have offered to someone else.

Centerview contended in court papers that it went to “great lengths” to accommodate Shiber’s disability but that “the ability to work unpredictable hours is an essential role of an analyst and is wholly inconsistent with Shiber’s request for set working hours.”

In court filings, Centerview said Shiber also insisted that her colleagues not be told why she needed a “hard stop” to her work hours at midnight. The bank said it determined that the approach was “unsustainable” over the long term, due to the strain it was putting on other junior bankers.

“As a result of Shiber’s need to sign offline at midnight each night, Shiber’s colleagues were left picking up on workstreams that Shiber would have been responsible for completing,” the bank said, “and Centerview ultimately added a new analyst to that deal team on account of these issues, uncommon in Centerview’s lean staffing structure.”