Ryan Specialty, CRC employee-poaching dispute settled

CHICAGO—CRC Insurance Services Inc., Crump Insurance Services Inc. and R-T Specialty L.L.C. , a unit of Ryan Specialty Group Inc., jointly announced Friday they have resolved their dispute over the issue of CRC employees joining Ryan Specialty.

In May 2010, more than 120 employees of Birmingham, Ala.-based CRC in Chicago, Philadelphia and California resigned to join Chicago-based Ryan Specialty. Both wholesale brokerages filed lawsuits against each other over the departing workers’ employment contracts.

Winston-Salem, N.C.-based BB&T Corp., whose wholesale operations include CRC, announced its acquisition of the Roseland N.J.-based Crump Group earlier this year.

As a result of the settlement announced Friday, the pending lawsuits between the entities and the employees will be dismissed with prejudice, the firms said in the statement. A Ryan Specialty spokeswoman would provide no further information.

In a ruling in the case in July 2011, the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles held Timothy W. Turner, R-T’s president and CEO, was not obligated to honor a noncompetition clause in his contract with his former employer, CRC Services, where he was president.