Centerview sleep lawsuit settles, but Wall Street hours stay in the spotlight

A closely watched lawsuit that threatened to put Wall Street’s junior-banker grind on trial has ended quietly, even as questions about working conditions for young finance professionals refuse to go away.

Centerview Partners has settled a wrongful termination case brought by former analyst Kathryn Shiber, avoiding a New York jury trial that was set to begin this week.

As reported on Business Insider and other news outlets, Shiber alleged the boutique investment bank unlawfully fired her in 2020 after she disclosed mood and anxiety disorders, a preamble for a request to be assigned a consistent schedule that would allow for at least eight hours of sleep each night.

Shiber joined Centerview soon after graduating from Dartmouth in 2020, calling the three-year analyst program a “dream opportunity” in her complaint. According to court filings, she was initially allowed to log off between midnight and 9 AM while working remotely during the pandemic.

But about 10 weeks into her tenure, she was dismissed on a video call and told she should have known the role required unpredictable hours and that she had taken “a coveted spot” another candidate could have filled.

Centerview did not disclose settlement terms and has continued to reject Shiber’s claims. A spokesperson said the bank has “said all along that Ms Shiber’s legal claims have no merit” and that it was “happy to put this distraction behind us and focus on delivering for our clients.”

Court documents suggest analysts on active deals at Centerview routinely worked between 60 and 120 hours a week. In Shiber’s case, internal emails referenced in filings showed tension around her midnight sign-off, including a message from an associate saying that he and another employee “shouldn’t be up alone working.”

For many on Wall Street, the settlement lands at an awkward time. Banks spent the past several years promising to address overwork among juniors after a pandemic-era surge in dealmaking and renewed scrutiny following the successive deaths of two young employees at Bank of America in 2024.

Some large firms have since formalized guardrails. JPMorgan introduced an 80-hour weekly guideline for banker workloads and instituted protected time on weekends, while Bank of America rolled out tools to track junior hours and flag when they exceed internal thresholds. Still, those steps have not meaningfully reduced the average week, according to recruiters and industry data.

A 2025 survey by Odyssey Search Partners found first- and second-year analysts working an average of 78 hours a week, the same as in 2022. Juniors at elite boutiques reported 82 hours on average, slightly above the 81 hours logged at bulge-bracket banks such as JPMorgan and Bank of America.

“It’s the junior bankers at the elite boutiques that have become increasingly busy, as they tend to operate with leaner deal teams and so the workload can’t be spread as broadly,” Odyssey cofounder Anthony Keizner said in a statement reported by Business Insider.

Recruiters say the culture on live deals remains stubbornly intact. Jake Schneider, an investment banking recruiter at Selby Jennings, said senior team members still expect analysts to be online when they are. “The expectation is, ‘If I’m doing this, you’re doing this,’” he told the news outlet.

As banks and RIA firms alike gear up for another potential mergers and acquisitions boom in 2026, both Wall Street and wealth firms are competing for the same pool of young, technically skilled professionals – many of whom are now weighing pay against mental health, predictability, and workplace flexibility.