Former Merrill wealth exec sues to win freedom in job market, say reports. Former Merrill Lynch wealth-management chief Robert McCann is suing Merrill's owner Bank of America over the terms of his departure so that he can take a "once in a lifetime" job somewhere else.

The suit doesn't identify McCann prospective employer, but recent unconfirmed reports have him poised to join battered Swiss bank UBS.

Weeks and months

In a court filing, McCann says he left Merrill for "good reason" early in January 2008 -- just days after Bank of America completed its acquisition of the wirehouse -- and that the is entitled to join a competing company after six months of paid leave, according to a report in the Financial Times.

McCann says that Bank of America's position is that he was terminated in late January and should have to wait one year before taking a job at a competing company. He also says that Bank of America has stopped paying him.

Bank of America recently named former Citigroup executive Sallie Krawcheck as head of its investment- and wealth-management division, a position that takes in McCann's erstwhile bailiwick. -FWR

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