The co-founder of an American investment firm is suing for $43 million after he was fired for disobeying his own return-to-office mandate.

US-based investment firm Bramshill Investments – which manages more than $8 billion in assets – introduced its RTO mandate in 2022 with a requirement for all employees to return to the office full-time.

The mandate was co-signed by Bramshill co-founders William Nieporte and Art DeGaetano, and chief executive Stephen Selver.

“You are all employees at will and can choose to abide by this mandate in the terms laid out above or not,” the note said.

“If you choose to not abide by the mandate, we will be offering severance packages.”

At the time, Nieporte was living hundreds of kilometres from the nearest physical office.

‘Wilfully and deliberately’ disobeyed mandate

Months after the return-to-office mandate was introduced, DeGaetano and Selver sent Nieporte a letter saying that he was not complying with the order and that he would be fired.

“You have wilfully and deliberately failed to report to ‘in-person’ work,” the note said, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

“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.”

Nieporte has now launched a federal lawsuit against the human resources company contracted by Bramshill over its role in his firing and is also in arbitration with the company he co-founded.

He is claiming more than $43 million ($US30 million) in lost wages, profits and his stake in the company.

Nieporte is claiming that the return-to-office mandate did not apply to him as he was an owner of the company, not an employee.

He said he “appropriately ignored the email” about the office mandate as he did not believe it applied to him.

Nieporte’s lawyer, Matthew Press of legal firm Press Koral, told the Wall Street Journal that disobeying the return-to-office mandate was not a proper reason for his sacking, and that it “did not validly apply to [him]” because he “was an owner and manager of the company”.

He also said his sacking was an attempt to “usurp” him of his 12 per cent share in the business because an employee must sell their shares if they are fired.

A spokesperson for the human resources company told the Wall Street Journal that it would defend itself in court and that it had complied with the law during the process.

A spokesperson for Bramshill Investments denied the claims made by Nieporte and said that he was not owed any money.

Key point

Press said that while most coverage of his client’s lawsuit against Bramshill made “great clickbait”, it missed a key point.

“Mr Nieporte – an owner and manager of the company, who had been working remotely since 2017—never agreed with the required unanimity to any policy that would force him to abruptly move 450 miles from his home,” Press wrote on LinkedIn.

“Instead, as set forth in the papers, as part of an ongoing pattern, his partners used a policy meant to apply to others as an excuse to push him out of his own company.”

Emmanuelle Subar Litvinov, a legal advisor for business owners, agreed saying the real headline “isn’t about remote work”.

“This dispute reportedly involves a clause requiring shareholders to sell their interests if terminated "for cause”.

“So, when the RTO violation became grounds for termination, it allegedly triggered a forced sale of his 12 per cent ownership stake too.

“That's the part founders miss: your job and your equity are often chained together in documents you signed years ago and haven't looked at since."