AssuredPartners unit sues NFP over professional liability hire
Reprints
An AssuredPartners Inc. unit on Wednesday sued rival brokerage NFP Inc. and its recently appointed professional liability practice leader, alleging that he breached nondisclosure and nonsolicitation agreements when he left AssuredPartners last year.
According to the suit in AssuredPartners Jamison LLC v. John P. Ferreira and NFP Corp., filed in U.S. District Court in New Jersey, Mr. Ferreira solicited at least one AssuredPartners client in breach of his restrictive covenant agreement with the company, which led to the loss of more than $108,000 in annual revenue.
Mr. Ferreira joined Herbert L. Jamison & Co. LLC in 1997 and continued with the agency after it was bought by AssuredPartners in 2011, court papers say. At the time of the deal, he signed an employment agreement that barred him from taking confidential information and soliciting AssuredPartners clients for two years, if he left the brokerage, the suit says.
Mr. Ferreira resigned from AssuredPartners on Nov. 9, 2022, and his last day at the company was Nov. 30. NFP announced last month that Mr. Ferreira had joined the brokerage as senior vice president and professional liability practice leader.
One day after he left AssuredPartners, law firm Cooper Levenson PA notified the brokerage that it no longer needed it to act as its broker of record, the suit says.
AssuredPartners says it conducted a forensic examination of Mr. Ferreira’s computer and discovered that he had emailed client information to his personal email address, including details of the Cooper Levenson account, in the weeks prior to his resignation.
AssuredPartners seeks a return of the information and compensation for the lost revenue, the suit says.
NFP declined to comment on the dispute. AssuredPartners did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
