Christianne Lauria v. Financial Forum & Jeffrey Comstock

Financial Forum hired Ms. Lauria in August 2018 as a Wealth Management Associate. At that time Ms. Lauria had substantial domestic and international financial and wealth management experience as well as an MBA from St. John’s University. Financial Forum offered her a $41,600/year take it or leave it salary. From August 2018 through early 2020 Ms. Lauria received routine pay raises and performance bonuses. Her personnel file contains no evidence of poor workplace performance.

In May 2020 Ms. Lauria learned that Financial Forum hired a 22-year-old white male as a financial advisor, allowed said advisor to negotiate his starting salary, and paid that male advisor $58,000/year.  Ms. Lauria confronted the company’s owner over this disparity to which the company’s owner replied that the younger male was “exactly what [he] was looking for: a good clean all-American white boy.”  Ms. Lauria called this out as gender discrimination to which the owner replied “don’t jump on the bandwagon of #MeToo and feminism.”

In August 2020 the company denied Ms. Lauria’s promised pay raise and bonus.  On September 25, 2020, Ms. Lauria again complained to the company’s owner of her unequal treatment.  On September 29, 2020, Financial Forum fired Ms. Lauria.

A copy of Ms. Lauria’s complaint is available here.