Morgan Stanley, Analyst Face Another Lawsuit

Brokerage firm Morgan Stanley and its Internet analyst, Mary Meeker, were named in another lawsuit Tuesday, alleging that she provided biased research--this time on AOL Time Warner Inc.

The suit follows two filed last week against Morgan Stanley and Meeker, alleging she provided biased research on Amazon.com and online auctioneer EBay Inc.

The same law firm, Schiffrin & Barroway of Bala Cynwyd, Pa., filed all three of the suits. The suits, which seek class-action status for shareholders in the companies, claim Meeker crossed over the “Chinese Wall” that is supposed to exist between analysts and their firms’ investment banking units.

The lawsuits come amid increasing scrutiny of Wall Street analysts by investors, regulators and politicians. Critics say analysts have increasingly compromised their opinions of stocks to make client companies happy and boost chances of being picked for fee-generating underwriting or merger-advisory jobs.

Morgan Stanley said it believes that the claims against Meeker are meritless.