Broker Wins Arbitration against Merrill Lynch.

NASD Arbitration Panel Issues Award against Merrill Lynch Finding That Mr. Slater's CRD Should Be Amended to Remove Two Entries Based upon the Defamatory Nature of Entries by Merrill Lynch

NEW YORK -- Brian J. Neville, attorney for Mitchell Slater, today issued the following statement regarding Mr. Slater's arbitration award in the Slater v. Merrill Lynch case issued after a NASD arbitration held in New York City in October:

Mr. Slater, now a Senior Vice President at the Smith Barney/Citigroup, had been a seventeen year veteran at Merrill Lynch and was a well regarded producer who had been invited into management roles at the firm. After several manager changes and some disputes with lower level branch office management, Mr. Slater decided that he could no longer work at his beloved Merrill Lynch because the firm had changed its personality and culture too much. However, when he left Merrill Lynch he never expected the outrageous conduct and attempts to blackball him from the industry. Therefore, with a heavy heart Mr. Slater was left with no real choice but to file a NASD arbitration claim in August of 2005 seeking to have removed information placed upon his Registration Record by Merrill Lynch that was only placed there after he left Merrill Lynch which he believed was defamatory, improperly reported and damaging to his business reputation.

Mr. Neville stated, "In a hard fought arbitration with the defense fighting the claims to the very end, the NASD arbitration panel's award is a vindication of Mr. Slater's claims. Brokerage firms (including Merrill Lynch) seem to think that they can put permanent entries on a broker's record (CRD) without justification. These wronged former brokers face costly arbitration proceedings and case law that is very protective of the brokerage firms in their efforts to clean up their CRD. Time and again arbitration panels reject the various defenses raised by these firms."

Mr. Neville went on to say, "Merrill Lynch was unable to convince the panel it had any justification to report the customer complaint and internal review items on his record. Mr. Slater is extremely pleased with the NASD arbitration panel's award. The process took over a year; the actual arbitration took six days and tremendous expenditures of time and effort by both Mr. Slater and his legal team. Having experienced counsel that is knowledgeable about the internal workings of brokerage firms, the NASD's CRD system was invaluable to him throughout the process, in particular, at the actual NASD arbitration hearing."

The Law Offices of Brian J. Neville, LLC is a full service law firm specializing in arbitration and litigation in the brokerage industry. For additional information about these types of disputes, please go to www.nevillelaw.com.