Newmark Brokers Sue Their Firm, Boss For Breach Of Contract
One of Newmark's top investment sales teams is going through a bad breakup that just came to light in a major lawsuit.
Newmark's Edward "Woody" Maher Jr. and Matthew Pullen — Boston-based investment sales brokers who serve as executive vice chairman and vice chairman, respectively — filed a lawsuit last week against the brokerage firm and its co-head of U.S. capital markets, Robert E. Griffin Jr.
The plaintiffs claim Griffin engaged in "a sustained campaign of exclusion" — removing them from the Boston capital markets team and cutting them off from important meetings and hiring discussions.
They say he didn't fire them because he didn't have the necessary cause, but he created "an intolerable environment where they essentially are cut off from clients and future deals, unable to earn commission income."
Newmark didn't respond to Bisnow's request for comment. Griffin's attorney, Paul Popeo of Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP, told The Boston Globe that the claims "are baseless and entirely without merit."
The two plaintiffs joined Newmark in 2015 from Cushman & Wakefield and were promoted to their current roles in 2022, at which time they signed new employment agreements that extend through 2028, the lawsuit says.
At the time of the promotion, Newmark put out a press release with a quote from Griffin stating that Maher and Pullen "are intrinsic members of Newmark’s Boston Capital Markets group, contributing greatly to the group’s success as one of the nation’s most productive institutional investment sales teams."
Maher's promotion made him co-head of the Boston capital markets team along with Griffin, who also co-leads its U.S. capital markets division.
It isn't clear what caused the rift between the brokers, but the lawsuit says that starting in April 2025, Griffin took a series of actions that violated the agreements with Maher and Pullen, including cutting them off from commissions and leaving them out of hiring decisions.
The lawsuit says Griffin told Maher in March that he removed Pullen from the Boston capital markets team. It says Maher expressed his objections to that move and told Griffin their agreement prevented him from making it unilaterally.
"Mr. Griffin brushed that concern aside," the lawsuit says. "He cynically told Mr. Maher that the agreement was 'not worth the paper it is written on.'"
In recent weeks, Griffin has blocked Maher and Pullen from accessing his calendar and directed other members of the team to do the same.
The plaintiffs say they attempted to come to an internal resolution before bringing the lawsuit. The suit says Newmark has been trying to get them to voluntarily resign because the company doesn't have cause to terminate them.
"They somehow seem to believe that if they pretend that they have not choked the Plaintiffs of the air they need to earn their livelihood, the Plaintiffs will simply walk away in frustration, allowing Newmark to impose onerous conditions upon what Newmark hopes will be their 'voluntary' departure," the suit says.
The suit, filed in Massachusetts' Suffolk County Superior Court, asks for a jury trial and alleges several counts, including breach of contract and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing.
It seeks "all monetary damages they prove at trial to have suffered" but doesn't provide a number. The Globe reported it could be in the millions of dollars.
The team continued to close and announce deals during the period in which the suit says they were feuding, including the $48M sale of a Fort Point office building in April 2025 and the $79M sale of a Billerica, Massachusetts, industrial campus in August. The team's announcements on those deals included all three of their names.
