A court will decide if bankers can be fired for demanding sleep

Article content

The bank said it soon became clear that it would not work in the longer term. There was “no reasonable accommodation available” that would enable her to perform the role if she needed eight to nine hours of consistent sleep per night, it said in filings.

Article content

A central question at trial was likely to be “whether it is actually essential that someone be available at three in the morning” or whether those hours are simply a cultural norm, said John Jacobi, a visiting professor at Columbia Law School.

Article content

Another important question would be whether the bank had discussed Shiber’s needs with her and tried to accommodate them, Jacobi said, referring to a legal standard known as an “interactive process”.

Article content

Expected witnesses include multiple Centerview bankers who supervised Shiber as well as duelling health professionals familiar with Shiber’s medical condition.

Article content

In a deposition that offers a glimpse into the at-times personal nature of the questioning in such cases, litigators for Centerview from the law firm Quinn Emanuel pressed Shiber about how much time she spent on Instagram and TikTok and her experience of grief. Quinn Emanuel also asked Shiber if she had lied to a school physician in order to be awarded extra time for exams, which she denied.

Article content

Article content

Shiber, a Dartmouth College graduate, had been working on Centerview’s “Project Dragon”, which was a mandate to defend the multibillion-dollar North Carolina utility Duke Energy from a possible proxy contest led by hedge fund Elliott Management.

Article content

In late August 2020, Shiber logged off after midnight without messaging two more senior bankers whom she was working with on a presentation for Duke. Shiber was reprimanded the next morning, after which she called Centerview’s human resources department to inform it of her medical need for sleep.

Article content

The lead banker of Project Dragon, Tony Kim, who is now co-president of Centerview, quickly designed what the firm would call a “guardrails” program that excused Shiber from work between midnight and 9 am.

Article content

Emails produced later as well as deposition testimony from Centerview bankers showed that the firm eventually believed that Shiber’s nightly absence was undermining both her personal development and the cohesion of the project.

Article content

Shiber’s lawyers have maintained that the accommodation was reasonable.

Article content

Centerview has countered that long and erratic hours are a crucial component of the analyst role and that state and federal disability law does not require an employer to take on a worker who cannot meet what the employer believes are basic obligations.

Article content

Article content

“Junior bankers obviously don’t need permission to go to sleep, but are expected to work together and communicate properly with teammates,” Centerview said in a statement.

Article content

Judge Ramos said in his denial of Centerview’s bid to prevail on summary judgment that the firm had never formally codified what the working-hour expectations were for junior analysts and Shiber has said she was unaware that she could be required at times to work consistently into the early morning hours.

Article content

Centerview, founded in 2006 by Blair Effron and Robert Pruzan, is widely considered to be the most elite United States merger advisory boutique, with annual revenues now exceeding US$2 billion even as it has fewer employees than rivals such as Moelis & Co and Lazard.

Article content

A focus in the trial will be which Centerview executives made the decision to jettison Shiber. The firm is attempting to keep Pruzan, the co-founder who handles most of its administrative matters, from testifying, arguing that he was not a key decision maker in the Shiber matter.

Article content

Shiber in a court filing said she had earned US$582,000 since she was terminated by Centerview more than five years ago, including an employment stint in the finance group at Google.

Article content

“Centerview’s act of terminating Shiber at the very start of her career had and will continue to have a devastating impact on her earnings for the rest of her work life,” her lawyers wrote in a recent court filing.

Article content

© 2026 The Financial Times Ltd

Article content

Article content