Stone v. Bear, Stearns & Co., Inc. - How Appealing

Case 2:11-cv-05118-LDD Document 22 Filed 05/29/12 Page 8 of 35
by J.P. Morgan. (Dr. Marston Tr. 12-13; Doc. No. 19 Ex. K). However, it is unclear whether Dr.
Marston knew who sponsored the conference before he agreed to give the speech. (Id.). And while
arbitrator Marston generally knew when her husband traveled to give speeches, she “doubts” she
knew of J.P. Morgan’s involvement with this event. (Marston Tr. 53:23-54:11).
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Also, in the fall of 2009, Dr. Marston took a position on the board of W.P. Carey. (Dr.
Marston Tr. 35-41). In the fall of 2010, Dr. Marston was elected to the Investment Committee of
Carey Asset Management, which reviews and approves Carey’s real estate investments. (Doc. No. 19
Ex. N; Dr. Marston Tr. 39-40, 55-57). Carey has a complicated organizational structure, but it
appears that Dr. Marston also sat on the board of Carey Asset Management, which owns Carey
Financial LLC, a registered broker-dealer. (Doc. No. 19, at 13). Both Dr. Marston and arbitrator
Marston aver that neither knew of the relationship between Carey Asset Management and Carey
Financial LLC before Stone filed this lawsuit. (Dr. Marston Tr. 40-41; Marston Tr. 44, 51-52).
More generally, Marston described her husband’s professional activities as follows:
He is an academic and a researcher. He is an expert on markets and he speaks very
often on the state of the economy, on the state of the markets. He’s got a very good
track record. He has a lot of credibility . . . as his career developed, he became a
real advocate for the investing public and a critic of a lot of practices in the
securities industry and he spoke widely about that.
(Marston Tr. 48). Dr. Marston’s most recent book on investing confirms that he saw himself as
someone with “perspective from the investor’s side of the advisor-investor relationship.” (Doc. No.
19 Ex. I, at xiv). In fact, Dr. Marston runs a program at Wharton counseling ultra-high net worth
investors such as Stone. (Id.).
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the J.P. Morgan speech, this took place after Marston was appointed to Stone’s
arbitration panel in late 2008 but before the first evidentiary hearing in September of 2010.
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