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| Allan Ripp |
If I had gotten my way a quarter century ago, I may well have been a victim of 9/11, along with dozens of others had they followed my advice.
In August 2001 I was helping direct publicity for a blockbuster sex discrimination lawsuit against Morgan Stanley. The case had been brought by a former institutional bond sales executive at the bank named Allison Schieffelin, who professed she “bled Morgan Stanely blue,” but was denied promotion to managing director because of her gender.
A year earlier the Equal Opportunity Commission had backed Schieffelin with a formal determination that Morgan Stanley showed a pattern of discrimination as well as retaliation against her and other women who challenged the firm’s pay and promotion practices.
After months of follow-on proceedings, including a second determination of discrimination in March 2001, the EEOC invited Schieffelin to join its enforcement effort, effectively merging a private and public action into one.
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| The EEOC press kit cover from the news conference Ripp Media/Public Relatons held at 7 World Trade Center on Sept. 10, 2001. |
Her case had already drawn enormous media coverage but the convergence of the two lawsuits would ratchet up pressure against the bank and shed light on the entrenched compensation disparity between men and women on Wall Street. Come August 2001, discussions turned to when and where to make the announcement.
Looking to make a splash after Labor Day, we focused on the second week in September and immediately targeted Tuesday, September 11 as an ideal filing date for the new lawsuits, along with a morning press conference in the EEOC’s New York office at 7 World Trade Center.
There was one snag. The EEOC’s new chair, Cari Dominguez, had just been sworn in to her job and was overwhelmed with meetings in Washington. Her preference was Monday, September 10, so she could quickly return to DC without breaking up her week. Plus, Tuesday was primary day in New York, adding more logistical challenges.
Anyone who’s ever staged a press event will concur that Mondays are generally to be avoided—you need quality advance contact the previous Thursday-Friday but then face a weekend blackout during which you invariably lose attendees the day of. Much better to have a full working Monday to ping reporters, making Tuesday the 11th a more optimal date. Our side argued hard for 9/11 but we were no match for the government’s team and consented to the day before—would it really make much difference to convene 24 hours earlier?
Working through the weekend, we proceeded with our presser sometime after 9 am on Sept. 10 to coincide with the federal court filings, drawing a sizable crowd of reporters at the Commission’s District office at 7 WTC. Schieffelin’s complaint charged that “Morgan Stanley has maintained a discriminatory workforce in which she and other employees have encountered a glass ceiling” and “were denied promotions and compensation commensurate with men.”
The EEOC issued its own news release, with Commissioner Dominguez demanding that the “principles that have worked so well in the marketplace be applied to the workplace.” Our lawyers had their say and there was a great Q&A session, with other former Morgan Stanley women present participating in the expanded lawsuit.
I remember stepping into the open Trade Center plaza afterwards, staring up at the gleaming Twin Towers, amazed at what we’d accomplished and psyched by the media show to follow.
Sure enough, the EEOC lawsuit became the top business story of the day and into the next morning, getting primo space in print editions of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times, New York Post, plus radio and TV. Until it was obliterated by the real story of 9/11. At a New York Historical Society exhibit months later, a looping WCBS radio news clip about the lawsuit was interrupted by an urgent bulletin describing a plane barreling into the North Tower.
Twenty-five years on, I’m still spooked to think that a personal calendar preference by a government official spared me and others from experiencing the destruction triggered by the terror attacks, especially since the 47-story 7 WTC collapsed from the 9/11 infernos. Strange also that one of my career highlights became a speck of collateral fallout, buried under the waves of ash and death that fell from the sky that awful day.
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Allan Ripp runs a press relations firm in New York.
(Post Script: the EEOC and Morgan Stanley reached a settlement on the eve of trial in July 2005, with the bank agreeing to pay Allison Schieffelin $12 million and creating an additional $40 million fund to be shared among 67 other eligible claimants.)
