Any thoughts on the $56M+ class action lawsuit against West Monroe? Claim is WM leadership violated federal ERISA laws and bought stock out from recent fires/departs and sold cheap to leaders right before the buy-out. https://sanfordheisler.com/press-release/west-monroe-partners-short-changed-former-employees-by-millions-in-major-stock-sale/
I’m just happy it’s not about McK
😂
I agree it’s kind of f’d up and would recommend those potentially joining WM to reconsider
Found the college hire without equity
Chief
This is actually super f’ed up
It's not f'ed up lol. If there was no transaction, these employees (the plaintiff in particular who took a PAID leave of absence, returned, then quit) would have been paid out exactly the amount they were, on the date they were. This is an attempted money grab because they quit. The ESOP has fiduciary responsibility to the employees and shareholders. As of 12/31/2020, this group was neither and was simply waiting for the valuation to be completed so they could be paid. This has been the process as outlined by the trustee in the bylaws for the past 9 years. Why would someone who quits get to enjoy the upside?
Secondly, the share price increased 3.1x. There were unallocated shares that needed to be distributed, which they again, should not be gifted. So the 5x number is flat out false.
Finally, when they quit, the share price was in the $400's, months later at year end, well after they left, it was increased to $515. They were paid out at $515 per share. Not seeing why they deserve anything further?
Lol if you were in the board room and have inside info, just say so. Not sure a decision made 15 months earlier had anything to do with the sale, nor did 50 people out of 1700 really move the needle...
But if you say so!
I have a lot to say but I'll just leave it as the posting you're reading there is the prosecution and is heavily slanted, a proper trial involves a defense before a jury makes a decision.
A lot actually, that's why its going to court.
Sheesh… crooks
Wouldn’t be too hasty to jump to this conclusion. I just read through some of the other comments in this thread and it seems like West Monroe did quite a bit of right by its employees. Always two sides to these
This is cut and dry. ESOP requires fiduciary duty for all members. The second someone from West Monroe picks up a call from this PE the ESOP board should know and throttle any buy backs through the DD process.
Sketchy AF. West Monroe loses this.
I’m going to assume you aren’t in the M&A service line based on your knowledge of valuations WM5. They laid people off amidst the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression, you can’t possibly be this dense? There are winners and losers in every transaction, get over the holier than though BS.
Exactly why you don’t want to work for a firm that is looking to monetize itself and select executives for a big payday. Better to focus on serving clients with none of this nonsense.
As a former WMP employee who will get the ESOP payout and current A&M employee, have to say I disagree AM1. WMP is going make hundreds of 20 and early 30 something’s millionaires. ESOP has real value, but real risk. Unfortunately for those that left or were let go in 2020, they fell on the real risk side of the transaction.
So, if this is a person that was very senior and did as W3 describes, then there’s only one person it could have been (former board member, used to lead tech). I do honestly feel for him since he truly was a big part of the firm being built and lost out on life changing (as in retire immediately/generational wealth) money by leaving when he did. For that sake, I hope this settles and he gets something since he was a great person. Unfortunately, I don’t expect he has much legal standing, it was all pretty clearly laid out, and losing out on equity vesting is something that happens to someone in effectively every major transaction, it’s unlucky but hardly illegal.
Based on SM3s response it’s not who I assumed, so this argument is moot.