HEADHUNTER SUES BROKER OVER 2 HIRES IN ARKANSAS: CLINTON IN CLEAR SO FAR

Who would have thunk it? There’s trouble in Little Rock that — as far as we know — can’t be blamed on President Clinton. The Arkansas capital is the setting of a quirky lawsuit involving a headhunter and a brokerage house.

Wall Street Recruiters Inc., an executive search firm based in Santa Barbara, Calif., is suing Memphis brokerage Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc. over a contract dispute involving brokers in a small town outside Little Rock. Lawsuits between brokerages over raiding disputes is common, but a brokerage being sued by a recruiting firm is a bit unusual.

Wall Street’s president, Richard McInturff, and his lawyer, John E. Pruniski III of Hilburn Calhoon Harper Pruniski & Calhoun Ltd. in North Little Rock, declined to comment. Morgan Keegan’s lawyer as well as parties named in the suit did not return telephone calls.

Wall Street filed its complaint in July, while Morgan Keegan filed its response to the complaint Aug. 20 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, Western Division. No trial date has been set, according to a court clerk.

TWO BROKERS HIRED

The case stems from the fall of 1996 when, according to the complaint, Wall Street introduced three brokers from the Rogers, Ark., office of St. Louis-based A.G. Edwards & Co. to Morgan Keegan, which hired two of them, Bob Taylor and Jim Mote.

Wall Street alleges it had a contract with Morgan Keegan to be paid $37,500 if Mr. Taylor was hired and $15,000 if Mr. Mote was hired.

Morgan Keegan in its response writes that Mr. Taylor has denied that he, Mr. Mote and Sheila Vantine, who instead went to work for Merrill Lynch & Co., were ever represented by Wall Street. Morgan Keegan also states in its response referring to Mr. Taylor and Mr. Mote, that Wall Street “was not the procuring cause of that employment.”

Wall Street, however, filed as evidence invoices and correspondence it contends Mr. McInturff sent to a Morgan Keegan managing director, Mark Lee. In one letter dated Dec. 4, 1997, Mr. McInturff wrote:

“I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on the hiring of Messieurs Bob Taylor and Jim Mote from A.G. Edwards in Rogers. From Wall Street Recruiters Inc. initial introduction on Sept. 23, 1996, your opinion that they ‘fit like a glove’ . . . eventually paid off.”