Top Capital Markets Broker Sues JLL, Claiming Retaliation After Cancer Diagnosis

Colliers New York City Capital Markets head Peter Nicoletti is suing his former employer, JLL, claiming the global real estate services giant discriminated and retaliated against him while he was undergoing treatment for cancer.

Nicoletti first filed suit against JLL in federal court in the Northern District of Illinois in March 2021, and he filed an amended complaint in August that included a charge of discrimination he filed against JLL with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 

He claims that after he was diagnosed with leukemia in 2017 and informed his superiors at JLL, he continued to perform his duties, which included brokering some of the country's largest capital markets deals, such as Blackstone's $640M sale of 5 Bryant Park in Manhattan to Savanna in 2018.  

Nicoletti, who worked at JLL for 13 years, was terminated from his position in May 2020, he said in his lawsuit, and was hired at Colliers two months later. He claims that he was fired after JLL executives tried to force him to resign, including by disbanding his team, reassigning his assistant and moving him to different offices.

He is seeking damages of at least $75K for alleged discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act and for retaliation under the Family and Medical Leave Act. He also is suing on counts of breach of contract, claiming he wasn't paid commissions he had earned after his termination.

JLL filed a response in court in August denying all of Nicoletti's allegations. A spokesperson for the firm said it doesn't comment on pending litigation. Its attorney, Lindsey Hogan, declined to comment when reached by phone.

In court papers, Nicoletti said he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in November 2017 and subsequently received ongoing chemotherapy. He said he continued his work duties for JLL while on leave and closed the year as one of the company’s top capital markets producers.

In March 2018, Nicoletti said in the suit that stem cell treatment required him to be quarantined at home for three months — though he said he once again continued to work from home, and from June transitioned back to the office, initially part time and then on a full-time basis. That year, he said in his complaint, he finished in the top 10% of all capital markets producers. (JLL denied this claim.) 

In February 2019, Nicoletti said he was hospitalized with pneumonia, suffered a heart attack, kidney and liver failure and blood clots, and kept JLL informed that he wouldn't be able to work or travel for a period, though he said he continued to work on deals and was back in the office two months later. 

In July that year, JLL merged with HFF, and while Nicoletti said he tried to work with JLL to discuss his role within the new structure, he was told that he had a reputation for “not being a team player."

By November, Nicoletti said his team had been disbanded, and that he would not be permitted to have his own team to do deals. He further claims that JLL moved him around offices unnecessarily, blocked him out of meetings and deprived him of administrative support like an executive assistant.

Nicoletti was terminated in May 2020, and he claims that when he asked for reasons, he was told it was because he didn't attend Monday morning meetings and that his production was low in 2019 — the year he had suffered a heart attack. He claims a JLL human resources staffer told him the company was unaware of any health issues.

Nicoletti didn't respond to requests for comment, but his attorney, Gregory Brown of Tampa, Florida-based Hill Ward Henderson, said in an email that evidence would show that brokerage “used his slight dip in performance to disguise its desire to terminate Mr. Nicoletti, knowing the uncertainty of his future performance because of his illness, and in the meantime, has refused to even pay him earned commissions after his termination.”

Brown added that Nicoletti's claim is “significant” and that he was historically one of JLL’s top-performing brokers.

“This changed only slightly during extended medical leaves for cancer treatments, where he kept up with his work, when he needed to do so, from his hospital bed," Brown said.

A status hearing for the case is set for May 5. Most recently, attorneys for both parties wrote in a status update to the court on Feb. 28, "There have been no settlement discussions at this time.”