8. Aon sued former employees who joined rival
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In a year that saw numerous poaching suits filed by brokers, one involving transportation insurance intermediaries drew significant interest.
A suit filed by Aon PLC in September against four executives who joined McGriff, the retail brokerage unit of Truist Insurance Holdings Inc. in 2020, was the eighth most read risk management-related story on Business Insurance’s website in 2021.
The four employees – Josh Thompson, Daniel Johnson, Annette Nitti, Jack Cole and Holly Williams – were charged with violating the post-employment client restrictions in the restricted stock units they received, according to Aon PLC v. Josh Thompson et.al., which was filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago. McGriff is not a defendant in the litigation.
McGriff had said in June 2020 the defendants would join its transportation practices’ risk management/complex program division.
The lawsuit charges that in the days before he resigned, Mr. Johnson, who had served as a transportation account executive, accessed a host of confidential files that included those of the clients he had served as well as those of the other workers who left with him.
It said Aon has developed “significant evidence” that the defendants have been soliciting and accepting business from clients and prospects they had solicited for Aon and had used social media to contact Aon clients.
An answer to the complaint filed Dec. 7 said Mr. Johnson had accessed files prior to his resignation to “finish as many open projects for his clients as possible” and to provide “for an orderly transition of his work.”
Defendants also denied they had solicited or accepted business from clients they had serviced or prospects they solicited for Aon.
