USI Insurance coverage Providers, one of many largest brokerages within the nation, has filed swimsuit towards a former gross sales workforce chief and one other powerhouse dealer, Lockton, accusing them of poaching staff and harming shopper relationships.
Elisia Hahnenberg, who started her profession at USI as an intern and rose to steer a workforce of account executives, breached non-compete agreements and introduced three USI salespeople together with her when she jumped ship to Lockton final 12 months, the federal lawsuit contends.
“Lockton and Ms. Hahnenberg have acted in live performance to unlawfully and wrongfully poach the assist personnel from the (gross sales) workforce to be able to cripple USI’s means to offer companies to its shoppers and to in the end persuade the shoppers to modify their worker advantages dealer to Lockton,” the April 11 criticism reads.
USI, with places of work in Atlanta and New York, is asking for compensatory and punitive damages, an injunction requiring that the defendants adjust to employment and non-interference agreements, in addition to legal professional charges.
Hahnenberg and Lockton haven’t but filed a solution to the criticism, filed in federal court docket in Atlanta.
The swimsuit was filed one week after one other main insurance coverage dealer, Brown & Brown, based mostly in Florida, charged in a federal lawsuit {that a} former vice chairman had poached three dozen shoppers and created a competing insurance coverage enterprise.
Lockton, privately owned by the Lockton household, has places of work in Atlanta and in Kansas Metropolis.
The criticism notes that Hahnenberg was employed as an intern in 2012 and later grew to become worker advantages workforce chief, based mostly in Atlanta. She oversaw 9 account executives and had entry to USI commerce secrets and techniques and proprietary techniques, the swimsuit explains. These techniques embody Omni, a platform that helps USI present custom-made options for shoppers.
In Could 2024, Hahnenberg submitted her resignation. Two days later, she tried to obtain confidential USI information to a cellular gadget, the criticism alleges. A number of weeks later, she began work for Lockton. USI reminded her of her employment settlement, which barred her for at the least two years from inducing different USI staff to depart the corporate.
“USI is now in a weak place with the potential for continued lack of Atlanta Account Executives and continued enterprise hurt and goodwill as a result of Defendants’ improper actions,” the swimsuit reads.
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