Gallagher claims competitor aided employees, clients in acts of retaliation
Alliant of accused stealing Gallagher's confidential information and rebranding documents after a deal between the brokers fell through.
In a court battle between insurance brokers, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has accused Alliant Insurance Services Inc of stealing away its employees and clients in retaliation for not accepting a business offer last year, according to a complaint filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery.
Gallagher filed a cause of action recently alleging Alliant and its private equity owner, Stone Point Capital LLC, of raiding the Gallagher firm, stealing confidential information and rebranding Gallagher documents as its own after Gallagher refused to make a deal with Alliant.
Inside the allegations
“Earlier this year, Alliant approached Gallagher with a threat couched as an offer: sell Alliant the books of business it covets, or face the consequences,” wrote Ryan D. Stottmann of Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell in Gallagher’s complaint.
When Gallagher refused that offer, the complaint said, Alliant unleashed a raid, targeting Gallagher employees in a way that caused them to violate their fiduciary duties. To date, according to the complaint, Alliant has poached at least 80 clients and 39 employees, with Gallagher employees leaving the company for Alliant without notice.
“In one recent example, after the resignation of senior Gallagher producers, subordinate Targeted Employees were instructed to fill out online job applications on Alliant’s website,” the complaint stated. “Then, within minutes, they received a call from an Alliant administrator who was already familiar with their job title and confidential salary information. Within minutes after that, they had job offers in hand, with no background checks and no requests for references.”
After the employees made the switch, the complaint said, they asked their clients to move their business to Alliant. Gallagher accused those employees of sending confidential Gallagher information about private accounts and business strategies to their personal email accounts for Alliant’s benefit.
Not the first complaint against Alliant
The complaint cites an opinion issued last year in which the Court of Chancery ruled Alliant had organized a raid against another competitor, using secretive behavior under the guise of compliance. That opinion resulted in a permanent injunction blocking Alliant from engaging in similar behavior and trying to get that company’s employees to leave the company for Alliant.
Now, Stottman wrote, Alliant and Stone Point “tweaked their playbook” but are continuing to poach employees, allegedly targeting Gallagher most recently.
“Over the course of the past ten months, and up through today, Gallagher has been forced to play whack-a-mole as Alliant targets Gallagher offices and practice groups across the country and continues to steal Gallagher’s employees and clients away, resulting in lawsuits across the United States,” Stottman wrote.
Gallagher is asking for a declaratory judgment that Alliant interfered in Gallagher’s business relationships, leading to breaches by Gallagher employees, as well as damages for that interference.
Stottman was not immediately available for comment on the case, and Alliant and Stone Point had not retained counsel. Alliant media representatives did not respond for comment.
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