Fortrend Securities secures restraint against Shaw and Partners’ new hirings

A fight between Fortrend Securities and Shaw and Partners over the poaching of two brokers has been played out in the Federal Court.

Shaw and Partners’ new senior portfolio managers, Stephen Lyle and Christopher Wollermann.

Two Shaw and Partners brokers have been banned from transferring customer accounts, and ordered to hand over their phones and computers after their former employer took action against them in the Federal Court.

Stephen Lyle and Christopher Wollermann were hit with the orders after the Federal Court convened to hear an application by Fortrend Securities.

Mr Lyle, an 11-year veteran at global equities firm Fortrend Securities, was a portfolio manager alongside Mr Wollermann before joining Shaw and Partners in December.

Mr Wollermann, who worked at Fortrend Securities for 13 and a half years, was poached alongside Mr Lyle in a move understood to have incensed Fortrend Securities’ management.

The two licensed brokers are understood to have overseen almost $5m in revenue each year while at Fortrend Securities.

Shaw and Partners announced the two had joined the firm two weeks ago, telling investors they brought “over 30 years of collective experience in wealth management and advisory”.

Both sides have traded letters in recent weeks before the dispute progressed to the Federal Court on Tuesday.

Shaw and Partners co-chief executive Earl Evans confirmed the firm had been hit with the legal action on Monday.

“It’s also fair to say we don’t agree with any of the claims and over the next week I’m sure it will get sorted out,” he said.

“The reality is it was two people who were very unhappy and wanted to move.”

Justice Michael O’Bryan ordered Mr Lyle and Mr Wollermann “to preserve and not destroy any material in their possession … that meets the definition of FSA Property”.

The two men were ordered to hand over the USB drives demanded by Fortrend Securities’ lawyers, as well as their phones, computers, and any other device “that has “FSA Property stored on it”.

Justice O’Bryan ordered Mr Lyle and Mr Wollermann “not to initiate or process any ACATS requests from StoneX until the hearing and determination of the applicant’s interlocutory application”.

An ACAT, or Automated Customer Account Transfer Service, is a system used to transfer securities from one trading account to those at a different brokerage firm or bank.

StoneX provides institutional-grade clearing platforms for the trading of commodities, derivatives, and securities.

Fortrend’s case is due to return to the Federal Court on February 1, with the securities firm securing confidentiality orders against Shaw and Partners and its new employees.

Mr Wollermann, Mr Lyle, Mr Evans, as well as Shaw and Partners secretary Steven Arnison, and Victorian state manager Malcolm Cameron were hit with the confidentiality orders.

“We’re pretty relaxed and calm about it,” Mr Evans said.

“Fortrend’s barking up a tree without a cat.”

Fortrend Securities has been contacted for comment.

Shaw and Partners has not been immune to changes in the industry, losing veteran resources research analyst Peter O’Connor in December.

The move by Fortrend Securities to pursue its former employees comes in the wake of a spat between Perth-based brokerage Euroz Hartleys and Canaccord Genuity, after the poaching of four stockbrokers.

Euroz Hartleys had alleged brokers Lauren Walker, Brett Stapleton, Cameron Murray and Michael Bowden had jumped ship, taking with them almost 14000 confidential documents.

The firm had sought to block the new Canaccord employees from using the information or contacting former clients.

The two sides settled under a deal in which the four brokers surrendered their electronic devices.