Investment firm’s cofounder sues after being fired for neglecting the in-person work mandate he signed, saying it applies to employees not owners

The debate between workers and management over remote work saw an unusual twist when the cofounder of an $8 billion asset management firm was terminated for breaking a return-to-office order he signed off on.

In 2022, William Nieporte was fired from Bramshill Investments, which he ran with his high school classmates and former co-managers Stephen Selver and Art DeGaetano.

A few months before that, all three of them signed an email telling staff to work five days a week at one of the firm’s three offices in New York City; Naples, Fla.; or Newport Beach, Calif.

At the time, Nieporte was living in San Ramon, Calif., which is hundreds of miles away from Bramshill’s closest office.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Selver and DeGaetano sent Nieporte a termination letter that said, “You have willfully and deliberately failed to report to ‘in-person’ work.”

Four years later, Nieporte filed a federal lawsuit in May against human resources company ADP Totalsource for its role in his firing, seeking at least $30 million. Meanwhile, he’s also in arbitration proceedings with Bramshill, parent company Ironmen, Selver and DeGaetano.

ADP didn’t immediately respond to a request........

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