The return-to-office (RTO) crackdown has officially reached the C-suite, triggering a multi-million dollar legal battle at an $8 billion asset-management firm. William Nieporte, a co-founder and executive at Bramshill Investments, was fired by his former high school classmates for failing to comply with the company’s strict five-day in-office mandate. Nieporte is now fighting back with a $30 million lawsuit, claiming his partners used the policy as a hollow excuse to strip him of his ownership stake.
The return-to-office mandate that backfired
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, the feud began in 2022 when Bramshill Investments cracked down on remote work. Nieporte, alongside his two fellow co-owners, who are his former high school classmates, sent an company-wide email ordering all staff back to their desks full-time.While regular employees faced a “comply or take a severance package” ultimatum, Nieporte thought the rules didn’t apply to him. As a co-owner, chief operating officer, and chief compliance officer who had moved to California, the nearest office was hundreds of miles away. Believing the policy was strictly meant for regular workers, Nieporte “appropriately ignored the email,” according to legal filings.His childhood friends saw it very differently. In a termination letter reviewed by the publication, his partners wrote: “You have willfully and deliberately failed to report to ‘in-person’ work.”Nieporte has now launched a federal lawsuit and separate arbitration proceedings, claiming his former high school buddies used the rigid RTO policy as a hollow excuse to execute a corporate coup.Under the parent company’s operating agreement, any shareholder fired “for cause” is forced to sell their equity back. Nieporte alleges his former partners fabricated the “dereliction of duty” claim simply to strip him of his lucrative 12% stake in the $8 billion firm. He is demanding at least $30 million in lost earnings, profits, and stolen equity.His attorney, argues that failing to show up to a physical office does not legally qualify as an official cause for firing a corporate owner under their specific contracts.When the July 2022 RTO deadline passed and Nieporte remained remote, DeGaetano wrote to him in frustration: “We have both junior and senior employees commuting over one hour each way to work, and yet you feel this policy doesn’t apply to you.”