4. Lockton sued trio of producers who joined Alliant

A spate of broker poaching litigation in 2023 included Lockton Cos. LLC suing three former producers who resigned and immediately joined rival Alliant Insurance Services Inc.

Lockton sought an injunction prohibiting the brokers from joining Alliant or another competitor before their 30-day notice requirement elapsed.

The story was the fourth-most-read risk management-related story on Business Insurance’s website in 2023.

Lockton charged in its October lawsuit that “in a clearly coordinated effort” the three producers took advantage of Lockton’s executive leadership team and producers, who were traveling to an annual forum in Florida and unavailable, to resign in violation of their contractual restrictive covenants.

Lockton was involved in several other poaching suits during the past year.

Less than a week after filing the Alliant suit, Lockton sued Willis Towers Watson PLC units and two of its former producers, charging the producers broke termination agreements when they abruptly resigned to join the rival brokerage.

Earlier in the year, Lockton and two former employees who joined a California-based BRP Group Inc. unit sued one another in federal court in Kansas City, Missouri, and California state court over whether nonsolicitation agreements are enforceable in Missouri. The cases were settled.

In another poaching case that drew significant interest in 2023, Alliant sued rival Resilience Insurance Advisory Corp. and a former official of one of its own units, charging that a reduction in force was used to engineer almost 40 people leaving Alliant to join the rival.

Aon PLC sued Alliant and 10 of its own former employees, charging Alliant had launched a “premediated unlawful raid” on Aon’s facultative reinsurance group and hired away 26 employees.

No. 5 most-read story