Bank of America Corp. said a managing director who accused the bank of being a “bros club” and filed a gender-bias lawsuit only came up with the inflammatory term after meeting with her lawyers.
Megan Messina, 42, who’s been with Bank of America since 2007 and was made managing director in 2011, sued the company in May, saying she was paid substantially less than her male counterparts and that women were treated like second-class citizens. It’s the latest such claim on Wall Street, where several major financial institutions have agreed to multimillion-dollar settlements in the past decade.
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In an answer to the suit filed late Friday, the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank specifically denied the existence of a “bros club” at the company, saying the term was never used by her supervisor or other managers and was invented by Messina and her lawyers.
The bank said Messina didn’t raise her concerns when she met with a senior executive and a human-resources representative and instead focused on dissatisfaction with her supervisor’s management style.
Despite the fact that the meetings were informal, the senior executive was sensitive to her concerns and sought input from the human resources department, according to the response. The bank also said it engaged with Messina and senior management on the next steps in responding to her criticism of her boss’s management style.
