Posted September 25th, 2018.
(September 25, 2018) – Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight a leading national public interest law firm, today filed a $30 million race and gender discrimination lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against multibillion-dollar commercial real estate behemoth Cushman and Wakefield, Inc.
The Complaint was filed on behalf of Cushman and Wakefield’s former President of Valuation and Advisory for the Americas Nicole Urquhart-Bradley, who, until her abrupt termination by C&W CEO Shawn Mobley in January 2018, was one of only two remaining female service line leaders at Cushman and Wakefield.
The Complaint alleges that, while Cushman and Wakefield regularly deployed Ms. Urquhart-Bradley to play the role of ambassador for “diversity” at Cushman and Wakefield, the public image Cushman and Wakefield sought to market was deeply at odds with an entrenched culture of discrimination against women and people of color.
“The evidence we have points to an environment where white men are favored by their male colleagues in senior management, significantly limiting the advancement of women, and particularly women of color,” said Deborah K. Marcuse, lead counsel for Ms. Urquhart-Bradley and Managing Partner of Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight's Baltimore office. “The irony is that Cushman and Wakefield was holding out Ms. Urquhart-Bradley as evidence of its diversity right up until it wrongfully terminated her.”
According to the Complaint, Ms. Urquhart-Bradley’s career advancement repeatedly faced discriminatory roadblocks despite her objectively outstanding performance. While Ms. Urquhart-Bradley was tapped to succeed her white male predecessor, and assumed his job responsibilities in August 2016, she was not given his Global title; instead, Cushman and Wakefield gave her the lesser title of President of V&A Americas.
“Despite her decades of commitment and stellar performance, it’s clear that Ms. Urquhart-Bradley was not valued by Cushman and Wakefield senior leadership for her demonstrated business acumen, but was instead cynically deployed to advertise Cushman and Wakefield’s supposed commitment to diversity,” said Melinda Koster, an Associate at Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight.
Notably, one of Ms. Urquhart-Bradley’s first orders of business in her new role was to defend against a poaching expedition by her predecessor, John Busi, now head of V&A for a competitor firm, Newmark Knight Frank. In the end, despite Mr. Busi’s concerted efforts to raid Cushman and Wakefield V&A for talent after the expiration of his non-solicitation agreement in August 2017, Ms. Urquhart-Bradley successfully retained her entire leadership team. Under her stewardship, Cushman and Wakefield’s V&A practice in 2017 achieved revenue exceeding both its plan for the year and its prior year’s attainment. In recognition of her impressive performance, Ms. Urquhart-Bradley was honored in December 2017 as one of BisNow’s “Women of Influence in Commercial Real Estate.”
Just a month later, however, according to the Complaint, Cushman and Wakefield CEO Mobley abruptly terminated Ms. Urquhart-Bradley, furious that she had dared to request a small fraction of the non-monetary retention benefits her white male subordinates had received and enjoyed. A few months later, Cushman and Wakefield promoted one of those same white male subordinates to replace her, despite the fact that he was far less qualified for the position than Ms. Urquhart-Bradley.
“In the age of MeToo, Cushman and Wakefield is facing a new world, where the old boys’ network behaviors will no longer be tolerated,” said David Sanford, Chairman of Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight. “The commercial real estate industry has a long-standing reputation for devaluing women; it’s time they recognize that these behaviors cannot continue.”
As alleged in the Complaint, even John Santora, Ms. Urquhart-Bradley’s supervisor and C&W’s President of the Tri-State Region (NY, NJ, CT), expressly acknowledged on a conference call shortly after CEO Mobley terminated Ms. Urquhart-Bradley that Plaintiff’s performance was not the cause of her departure from Cushman and Wakefield. Since Plaintiff’s termination, Cushman and Wakefield has falsely claimed that her separation from Cushman and Wakefield was “mutual,” and has insisted on the enforcement of her twelve-month non-compete agreement, thereby hampering her ability to take another position in her industry and area of expertise.
Ms. Urquhart-Bradley asserts claims under Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the District of Columbia Human Rights Act. She seeks back pay, front pay, compensatory damages, and punitive damages, as well as attorneys’ fees, costs and expenses, pre-judgment and post-judgment interest, and a jury trial.
According to its website, Cushman and Wakefield operates 400 offices in approximately 70 countries worldwide, with 48,000 employees, 3.5 billion square feet under management, and $6.9 billion in revenue in 2017.
About Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight
Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight is a national public interest class-action litigation law firm, which has offices in Washington, DC, New York, San Francisco, Palo Alto, San Diego, and Nashville. Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight is committed to protecting the rights of individuals and classes in employment discrimination, wage and hour, qui tam, and other civil rights matters. The firm has extensive experience in complex class action litigation, having successfully represented thousands of individuals in major class action cases in the United States. The firm also represents select individual clients such as executives, lawyers in employment disputes, and whistleblowers. The firm has recovered over $1 billion for its clients. For more information, visit www.sanfordheisler.com or contact Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight at 646-791-4848.