AssuredPartners suing former broker over employment agreement
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An AssuredPartners Inc. unit is suing a former broker and the brokerage he established, charging violation of an employment agreement.
AssuredPartners of New Jersey LLC sued Edgar Ortiz for allegedly violating a restrictive covenants agreement, according to the complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in AssuredPartners of New Jersey LLC v. Edgar Ortiz and Silk Road Transportation Insurance LLC.
It charged that in September 2022, while still working for AssuredPartners, Mr. Ortiz violated his agreement by surreptitiously transferring AssuredPartners’ confidential and proprietary information to his personal electronic email addresses, and started his own competing agency, Bellevue, Iowa-based Silk Road.
The complaint says he left AssuredPartners three months later to run Silk Road.
The lawsuit charges Mr. Ortiz with breach of contract and both him and Silk Road with tortious interference with contractual and prospective contractual relations and violation of Iowa’s Uniform Trade Secrets and Defend Trade Secrets Acts.
It seeks an injunction preventing further violation of the employment agreement and liquidated, punitive or exemplary damages, among other measures.
Contact information for Mr. Ortiz and Silk Road was not available.
In February, an AssuredPartners Inc. unit 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.
