Dobin & Jenks Successfully Represents Former Advest Stockbroker
Some of you will recall the ill-conceived and ill-fated transaction where Merrill Lynch acquired the assets, including the human assets of Advest from Axa Financial.. It was a disaster for Merrill and unpleasant for the Advest brokers, a vast majority of whom left the firm.
We represented a few of those brokers, and talked with others, who did not feel that Merrill was a good fit and chose to move on. The problem was that these brokers all had transition contracts in place. In one case we handled, the NASD arbitration panel amortized the bonus money and ordered our client to pay back a lower amount than Merrill was seeking. In a more recent case, Brian Buckstein of our office represented a client whose contract contained language that voided the agreement in the event that Advest closed his office and did not open one within 50 miles.
Brian tried the case against Merrill for two days and Merrill tried to argue that a Merrill office would qualify as an Advest office for the purpose of the agreement. The arbitration panel apparently disagreed with Merrill's position and awarded Merrill nothing.
The lesson to be learned from this is to read any agreement carefully and, if you don't want to end up working for an entity you didn't choose, put language in the agreement that gives some protection.
That's the view from The Law Planet, Jupiter, Florida.
