Tales From the Boom Boom Room

By Susan Antilla 
Reviewed by Kenny Brechner

    It is appropriate that the publication of Tales From the Boom Boom Room, by Susan Antilla, the excellent new book detailing the series of gender bias class action lawsuits against Wall Street brokerage firms, was made in the wake of Class Action, the very fine book detailing the landmark gender bias class action lawsuit, Jenson vs. Eveleth Mines, which made the Wall Street cases possible.

    The principle case covered in Tales From the Boom Boom Room is Martens et al. v. Smith Barney et al. The sexual harassment and discrimination documented by Martens and other brokerage cases make clear that the conditions in brokerage firms easily matched those found in Eveleth Mines as far as intensity of abuse is concerned. Louise Fitzgerald, a psychologist specializing in sexual harassment and discrimination, was hired by the plaintiffs in Martens to assess conditions at Smith Barney. "I’ve been studying sexual harassment for almost twenty years, and I have never seen anything like this...it was amazing to me how damaged some of these women were."

    There were, however, a number of key differences between Jenson and Martens which greatly effected their outcomes. While most plaintiffs may begin the legal process determined to bring their grievances into the public forum of a trial, the risks of a negative outcome, the prohibitive discovery costs of an extended trial, the willingness of defendants to settle emotionally charged complaints, the emotional toll which aggressive lawyers representing defendants put plaintiffs through, the extreme stress of remaining employed in a hostile environment, these and other factors insure that a settlement occurs well before a trial. Jenson was exceptional in that the defendant, Eveleth Mines, was intractable, refusing to make a reasonable settlement offer, very much against its own interests, and thus the process, which lasted more than a decade, ground all the way through a trial and an appeal.

    The Brokerage cases were very different in this regard. Brokerage firms tend to fear bad publicity more than anything else the legal system has to offer. People with money can always switch brokerage houses. Bad publicity for a mining company, on the other hand, is not likely to make anyone look for another source of taconite pellets.

    Another key difference between the cases was that the brokerage industry uniformly put U-4 clauses into their employment and customer contracts which stipulated mandatory arbitration for any disputes between employee and employer. This suspension of the constitutional right to a trial was made possible due to its oversight by the Federal Securities and Exchange Commission.

    Lead plaintiffs Lois Jenson and Pam Martens shared near photographic memories, strong leadership abilities, and staunch, obstinate moral convictions, but where these qualities made Lois Jenson the key to a successful trial, they made Pam Martens a thorn in the side of the intricate settlement worked out by her own lawyers. Martens ultimately pulled out of the lawsuit that bears her name and became a tireless critic of its settlement.

    Tales of the Boom Boom Room is a fascinating account which brings into focus a complex of factors involving legal, moral and ethical dilemmas which have neither single, nor easy, answers, but which require a sustained and vigorous assessment in order that a grievous harm and inequity may be gradually shepherded towards a more equitable and humane conclusion.