Cushman & Wakefield is again facing a legal battle over gender discrimination.
Hongmei "Janice" Li, the former director of C&W's Asia Pacific International Desk, has filed a $4M suit in New York Supreme Court, alleging the brokerage giant demoted, then fired, her, replacing her with a young, white, male colleague with less experience, The Real Deal reports. Janice, 47, was replaced by Sam King, who just nine years ago was an associate at Cresa and got his bachelor's degree in 2005, according to his LinkedIn page.
Janice says Cushman informed her she was "too senior," which led to her dismissal. It's the third lawsuit of its kind for Cushman & Wakefield in the last three years. Former regional COO Suzy Reingold sued after Ron Lo Russo was promoted above her in 2013, and that lawsuit was resolved with little public detail.
Last year, former head of Americas research Maria Sicola filed a $40M lawsuit after Cushman & Wakefield fired her a day after her 60th birthday and promoted DTZ's chief economist, Kevin Thorpe, into her job, post-merger.
After Maria filed the lawsuit in October, Bisnow spoke with her attorney, Deborah Marcuse of Sanford Heisler Kimpel. Deborah said C&W appears "to be moving backwards" on the issue of gender equality, citing the company's 14-person global leadership team of 14 men. Today, the company's website shows a 15-man executive team.
It's C&W policy to not comment on legal matters. [TRD]
