A former Morgan Stanley advisor is claiming the wirehouse “circled the wagons” and protected supervisors whom she’d accused of misconduct.

In the lawsuit filed in the North Carolina federal court, Elizabeth Hobson argued that her supervisors discriminated against her because she was a woman and because of her physical disability brought on by injuries and subsequent surgeries.

Hobson alleged that one supervisor “pressured her to physically display her surgical incisions” when interrogating her about her injuries, while in another instance, the firm allegedly disclosed Hobson’s address to other employees against her wishes, despite her claims that it was legally shielded by North Carolina law because she was a domestic violence survivor.

In a statement responding to the filing, a Morgan Stanley spokesperson claimed that the firm is “committed to providing equal employment opportunities and to fostering a workplace that is fair, inclusive and respectful. We intend to vigorously defend ourselves in the appropriate forum.”

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According to the complaint and FINRA records, Hobson joined Morgan Stanley in 2016 and worked out of the firm’s branch in Cornelius, N.C.

In 2017, Dana Timchenko joined from UBS, and Hobson claimed that Timchenko faced harassing conduct from Jeremy McPherson at her former firm. Nevertheless, Curtis Mason (a market executive for Morgan Stanley’s Carolinas Complex)—who had previously worked with McPherson at Merrill Lynch—allegedly hired him to join Morgan Stanley in 2023.

According to the suit, Hobson had “multiple serious neck injuries” stemming from domestic violence during a previous marriage, exacerbated by a car accident and several surgeries. It led to pain and limited mobility, but Hobson claimed she was able to continue her work (with Morgan Stanley accommodating her needs). But Hobson claimed she faced pushback for taking leave for her surgeries, with the firm allegedly resisting requests for a standing desk and a work-from-home arrangement.

According to Hobson, she held a domestic violence protective order and was enrolled in North Carolina’s Address Confidentiality Program, allowing her to use a substitute address. Hobson claimed she’d been enrolled in the program (and accommodated by employers) since 2010. But in 2023, Morgan Stanley’s Human Resources department allegedly began demanding proof of a protective order and other details. Hobson said she felt uncomfortable and asked that she not be identified as a domestic violence victim in her personnel file. Hobson claimed the wirehouse said her real address needed to be sent to FINRA to accommodate her work-from-home request, which she found to be false.

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Several days later, Hobson claimed Morgan Stanley disclosed her address and personal number in an email to multiple firm employees, placed it with FINRA and the firm, with her requests to recall the email made to no avail (in a later investigation, Hobson claimed a firm representative stated that FINRA’s request “overrides” the North Carolina program).

Throughout this time, Hudson claimed that her superiors had “stripped client relationships” from her and directed them to McPherson and his team as she dealt with health problems. In one case, when Timchenko opted to leave, Branch Manager Robert Pawlowski allegedly questioned whether Hobson could handle her job, referring to her demeaningly as a “girl.” Allegedly, Pawlowski also tried to give Hobson’s clients to a male colleague, saying Hobson wouldn’t be at the firm much longer and “couldn’t handle her job.” The colleague refused to take the clients.

In January 2024, when Hobson was in the branch, Pawlowski allegedly asked her into his office, where he asked numerous questions about her injuries, and “began peering at her neck,” saying he thought she had had surgery on the “front of her neck.” Pawlowski allegedly asked to see the incisions, and Hobson claimed he persisted in asking her “until, feeling pressured and uneasy,” she lifted her hair and removed her coat to physically display the incisions.

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According to Hobson, Pawlowski also asked repeatedly about how she got the injury, despite her saying she needed to leave the meeting. When she finally revealed the truth, Pawlowski said that if “someone did that to my daughter, I’d kill them,” and asked about Hobson’s father (who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease).

“No manager in (Hobson’s) career had ever pressured her to display her surgical incisions, interrogated her about her domestic violence history or mused about who should have killed whom,” Hobson relayed in the complaint.

While she memorialized the encounter in writing, she claims Pawlowski fabricated a false record of the meeting, in which she quickly brushed off his questions and left the building.

The allegations in the complaint detail a morass of back-and-forth communications with human resources and employee relations divisions, which Hobson claims helped protect management rather than employees (in the meantime, she argues, $40 million in client assets was transferred away from her book in the wake of Timchenko’s departure).

Hobson relays that she was often told to fill out more forms, and when her requests were closed, they’d happen when she was out of the office (whether during surgeries or in the midst of mourning her father’s death).

Additionally, Hobson claims that after she filed her allegations, her short-term disability claims were denied, and her family’s health insurance and prescription drug benefits were cut off without notice. By June 2025, Hobson claims she felt she had no choice but to resign (according to FINRA records, Hobson has been registered with LPL Financial since June of last year).

In the suit, Hobson is seeking pay, lost deferred compensation, trailing revenue and production-based compensation, the value of lost or canceled benefits, and compensatory and punitive damages.