March of the insurance brokers: Downtown brokerage sues archrival around the corner for loss of 18 employees in 44 minutes last Wednesday

A national commercial insurance brokerage with an office on High Street downtown today sued an archrival with an office around the corner on Franklin Street for allegedly stealing away 18 employees specializing in construction insurance - and millions of dollars worth of contracts.

WTW Northeast says the alleged "smash and grab" recruitment by the Lockton Companies violates WTW's contracts with the 18 workers - which it says mandates at least two weeks notice of resignation, has a two-year non-compete clause and forbids them from using confidential WTW information after they leave.

In its suit and request for a temporary restraining order, filed in Suffolk Superior Court against both Lockton and the 18 employees - 15 of whom worked on High Street, the others in Pennsylania and Alabama - WTW charges:

To date, Defendants' scheme has not only resulted in a massive loss of valued employees, but also the immediate loss within 48 hours of multiple clients (restricted by the Individual Defendants' post-employment restrictive covenants), which generated over $5 million in annual revenue. WTW is aware that Defendants are continuing to target many more WTW client relationships, all of which are at immediate risk. The systematic and coordinated effort in which this scheme was, and is, being carried out demonstrates that Defendants have collectively been planning the "smash and grab" long before the Individual Defendants left their WTW employment.

WTW says all 18, who had specialized in finding insurance for construction companies submitted immediate resignations between 8:02 and 8:46 a.m. on Wednesday, starting with their office superior, Michael Scott.

WTW is seeking an immediate restraining order to block those employees from contacting any more of their now former WTW customers - and to make Lockton cancel any contracts its signed with them - not necessarily to force them back to WTW, but to keep them from staying with Lockton, even if that means going to a brokerage not involved in the dispute at all.

It avers it is only seeking what Lockton itself won in a similar 2019 case when another brokerage did to it what WTW says it has now carried out itself.