A former Cushman & Wakefield executive who says the global real estate company used her as a face of workplace diversity sued the company in Washington federal court on Tuesday for alleged race and gender discrimination, claiming persistent roadblocks and unequal treatment. The complaint was filed by Nicole Urquhart-Bradley, the former head of valuation and advisory for the Americas. Urquhart-Bradley, an African-American female executive who had worked at Cushman for more than a decade, was terminated in January.

Urquhart-Bradley's complaint, filed by the plaintiffs firm Sanford Heisler Sharp, alleged a culture of discrimination at the company, where women and minorities allegedly faced more roadblocks than white males. The complaint said that despite above-average performance reviews, Urquhart-Bradley was terminated because of her race and gender.

“The evidence we have points to an environment where white men are favored by their male colleagues in senior management, significantly limiting the advancement of women, and particularly women of color,” Deborah Marcuse, lead counsel for Urquhart-Bradley, said in a statement. “The irony is that Cushman & Wakefield was holding out Ms. Urquhart-Bradley as evidence of its diversity right up until it wrongfully terminated her.”

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