Answer by Paul Abbott for How to use OR in IF, ELSE, THEN Condition - VB.Net

I know this isn't answering your question directly, but you might want to try something cleaner and easier to read:

Dim badNames = New List(Of String) From { "Eagan Jones", "Farient Advisors", "Glass Lewis", "Internal Guidelines", "ISS", "None" }if (badNames.Contains(AdvisoryFirms.AdvisoryFirmNameTextBox.Text)) then    ...else    ...end if