Court Denies J.P. Morgan Broker’s Bid for TRO …

INVESTMENT NEWS | December 15, 2021 | Mason Braswell

Judge Denies J.P. Morgan Broker’s Bid for TRO in Client Poaching Case

Braswell writes:

A federal judge on Wednesday denied a J.P. Morgan broker’s bid to block private bankers from soliciting her customers in a “messy” and “high-stakes” client poaching case, according to an order in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California.

Gwen Campbell, who filed her lawsuit last week, did not meet the high standards required to justify the “extraordinary remedy” of a temporary restraining order or injunction, Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. ruled. Campbell, who worked in J.P. Morgan’s traditional J.P. Morgan Advisors brokerage unit, did not prove “irreparable harm,” or show a “sufficient likelihood of success on the merits,” the judge wrote, although he noted she could still ultimately prevail on her breach of contract and damage claims in a parallel arbitration case.

“This is a complex (and apparently messy) high-stakes business dispute that the arbitrator will have to sift through on a fully-developed record,” Gilliam said in the order. “But it is clear to the Court that Plaintiff has failed to justify her request for extraordinary interim relief.” Read Article