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By Suzanne Barlyn
Jan 8 (Reuters) - A former private wealth adviser for a unitof Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc can keep a lucrativesigning bonus he received from the firm three years before itcollapsed, a securities arbitration panel has ruled.
Lehman lost its bid to recoup $1.8 million from WilliamGourd, who joined the firm in early 2005, according to a rulingthis week by a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration panel. A Lehman spokeswoman declined to comment.
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc has been pursuing roughly 50 ofits former licensed securities professionals to return portionsof the bonuses they received when hired. The firm, which filedfor bankruptcy in 2008, emerged from the process in March 2012as an entity that liquidates Lehman assets to repay creditors.
Signing bonuses, often referred to as 'employee forgivableloans' are paid by firms to brokers and other licensedsecurities professionals up front and structured as loansforgiven over time, typically a seven-to-10-year period. Theamount varies and reflects the employee's anticipated futurecompensation based on past performance.
Brokers who leave the firm before the loan term is over mustreturn part of the payment. That was case for many Lehmanbrokers who lost their jobs after the company filed forbankruptcy and Barclays PLC bought its U.S. brokeragearm.
Arbitrators rarely rule in favor of brokers who try to keeptheir bonus money after leaving a firm. The Lehman situation,however, is unusual because brokers departed because of thefirm's bankruptcy.
Outcomes in Lehman's efforts to claw back bonuses have beenmixed. Arbitrators have ruled in its favor in some cases, butallowed employees to keep their bonuses in others. It is unclearhow many cases have been settled.
Lehman filed its arbitration case against Gourd in 2012,alleging that he breached a contract with the firm, according tothe ruling, dated Monday. Gourd's original bonus was over $2million, according Daniel Dwyer, a lawyer in Boston whorepresented Gourd.
The case hinged on a clause in the bonus contracts thatrequired employees to repay amounts they owed on the bonuses ifthey left the firm. "Nobody left Lehman," Dwyer said in aninterview. "On the contrary, the people who stayed to the bitterend were loyal employees," he said.
The arbitration panel, however, did rule against Gourd in acounterclaim he filed seeking $5.5 million in damages, whichDwyer said included unpaid commissions and restricted stock."The counterclaims were legitimate, but we understood we had anuphill battle there," Dwyer said.
Gourd, now a private wealth adviser for a unit of UBS AG in Stamford, Connecticut, declined to comment on theruling.
