Centerview Partners' emotionally distressed analyst wants her therapist to testify

Kathryn Shiber only worked for boutique investment bank Centerview Partners for three months before she was fired, but in a New York court case whch the Financial Times says is due to start next week, Shiber is seeking $5m in damages for - among other things - all the money she might have earned during a 10 year career there. Whether or not she succeeds may depend in part upon her therapist. 

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Shiber says her short time as an investment banking analyst formatting PowerPoint slides at Centerview left her with issues. Her original filing in 2021 cites,"damages to the quality of her life, her self-esteem, self-respect and financial and emotional well-being. She says she was subjected to "humiliating and demeaning" conduct at Centervew, which will "remain a source of humiliation, distress and financial loss," for the future.

Shiber - who was already suffering from a diagnosed mood and anxiety disorder when she joined the firm aged 21, is asking her ex-therapist, Kylee Mueggenburg, to testify to the emotional distress she suffered as a result of her brief time at the boutique. Centerview, in turn, is arguing that Mueggenburg's testimony should be excluded from the trial because it says Shiber disclosed Mueggenburg's identity too late in the process. Centerview also says that Mueggenburg "blindly relied on representations made by Ms. Shiber....and did not consider alternative sources of Ms. Shiber’s alleged distress." Mueggenburg allegedly didn't even know that Shiber had lost her job, for example.

Mueggenburg - who is based in San Fransciso - describes herself as helping young adults experiencing anxiety and life transitions and passionate about helping people navigate trauma. After being fired by Centerview, Shiber worked in the finance group at Google. The FT notes that she's earned $582k in the five years since leaving the boutique. 

Shiber's case hinges around whether Centerview should have made more effort to accommodate her need to sleep for at least eight hours a night to stop her anxiety from spiralling. 

Shiber claims that once she started working at Centerview it became quickly apparent that "employees were expected, at times, to work 24 hours in a day or across multiple days without rest or stopping." She says that she herself worked from 8am to 1am for "two or three days in a row" during one week and that after logging off at 1am when she thought all her work was finally done, her associate reprimanded her for not informing him first. Shiber then went to HR, who arranged for her to have a "hard stop" between midnight and 9am. She proceeded to work "from 9:00 am to midnight each day, seven days a week," including a whole Labor Day weekend. She was fired around two weeks later.      

If Shiber's case succeeds, other junior bankers with anxiety will also be able to demand eight hours' sleep. Centerview is arguing that it doesn't owe her many millions of dollars because she only worked there briefly and "identified no evidence indicating she would have completed the three-year analyst program, let alone received a promotion to associate." 

The FT notes that Centerview has also raised questions about the amount of time Shiber spent on Instagram and Tiktok.

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