Global insurance broker Marsh USA filed suit against competitor Aon and a former Marsh team leader for allegedly poaching key members of Marsh’s construction surety team who resigned and moved to Aon last month.
A complaint filed by Marsh in federal court in New York accuses Aon and its former construction and surety team leader, Robert McDonough, of a “brazen taking” of its construction surety business, including its confidential information, employees and clients.
According to the lawsuit, the scheme culminated with the “coordinated resignation of 20 employees in the span of just 38 minutes” on March 10, 2025.
As a result of the alleged raid, Marsh said it lost numerous clients representing millions of dollars in revenue annually and has suffered harm to its client relationships and its reputation and goodwill in the brokerage industry.
“Aon could not execute the plan to raid Marsh alone—it needed an inside man and enlisted McDonough, a senior leader in Marsh’s construction surety business unit, to use his knowledge of Marsh’s confidential information and his relationships with Marsh’s employees and clients to advance an unlawful scheme and raid Marsh’s construction surety business,” according to the complaint.
Aon declined to comment on the lawsuit when contacted by Insurance Journal.
Aon Lost Own Team
The lawsuit contends that the scheme began before McDonough and the others left Marsh, soon after Aon lost a team of its own surety employees to another competitor in January. “Rather than invest the time and money to rebuild its surety practice piece by piece, Aon opted for a quicker, unlawful fix: simply pluck a significant portion of Marsh’s construction surety business unit to fill its need,” the lawsuit says.
McDonough joined the Marsh construction surety team in New York in March 2016 as the practice leader and he maintained that senior leadership role for nearly a decade. According to Marsh, McDonough was privy to its highly confidential information and trade secrets, including information about Marsh’s workforce and clients. McDonough is accused of leading the mass resignation on March 10 when he submitted his resignation at 10:45 a.m. and 19 others followed his lead, including 70% of McDonough’s direct reports.
On March 17, the suit contends, McDonough assumed a comparable role at Aon, as CEO of its North American construction, infrastructure, and surety group. The 19 other Marsh departing employees also assumed similar roles at Aon—”essentially mirroring the structure and roles of Marsh’s construction surety business,” the complaint says.
In a March 10 press release, Aon touted new leadership for its construction and surety practice, with the hiring of McDonough and another key Marsh employee, Brian Hodges.
Marsh contends that McDonough has breached non-solicitation, confidentiality and other agreements he signed prior to beginning his employment at Marsh in 2016. The agreements establish that McDonough’s violation of their restrictive covenants would result in irreparable injury to Marsh and they set forth penalties should he violate them. The non-solicitation agreement, acknowledges that the restrictions are necessary to protect the legitimate business interests of the company and are reasonable in view of the consideration and benefits, including access to bonus plans, he has received from the company.
‘Irreparable Harm’
Additionally, in his confidentiality agreement, McDonough is said to have agreed that “irreparable injury will result” to Marsh and that, in the event of a breach, Marsh shall be entitled to specific performance and temporary and permanent injunctive relief, recovery of reasonable sums and costs, including attorneys’ fees, and any other legal remedies and damages available.
In addition, Marsh says McDonough signed a liquidated damages agreement that covers situations where a client either reduces the amount of business or cancels business with Marsh due to violations by him. This provision calls for him to pay Marsh an amount equal to the total fees and commissions received by the company for such business during the two years prior to the breach. That would be in addition to all other damages and remedies, according to the lawsuit.
According to the complaint, as part of the collusion, Aon worked with McDonough to recruit the 19 employees to Aon, drawing upon his knowledge of Marsh’s confidential personnel data related to compensation and client contacts.
Further, Marsh alleges that McDonough worked with Aon to identify Marsh clients— “particularly ones with which McDonough had strong relationships—to move their business to Aon.” This drew upon Marsh’s confidential information about the clients’ current contracts with Marsh, Marsh’s pricing, Marsh’s business development strategies, and client preferences, the complaint says.
In the wake of the mass resignation, Marsh personnel spoke with many of the departing employees after they resigned. Marsh says these interviews “confirmed McDonough and Aon’s plot to steal Marsh employees as a group.”
One of the departing employees reported that the raid was “all orchestrated by Rob McDonough,” who, the employee said, “selected the best 20 people in the practice to leave together” and told him he had the choice to either “take life changing money and stay with us or be left behind and clean up the puke.”
Marsh Cllients
According to Marsh, the scheme also targeted both established and potential Marsh clients, including one with a major infrastructure project and another with a transportation facility construction project, allegedly using Marsh’s confidential information to get them to move their business to Aon.
Marsh also contends that McDonough and another Aon employee recently attended an industry conference in San Deigo where Marsh maintains they “actively targeted” Marsh employees and clients “in what could only be an effort to solicit them on behalf of Aon.”
Among the complaint’s counts are unfair competition; breaches of contract, fiduciary duty and common law duties of loyalty, absolute candor, and good faith; tortious interference with business relationships; aiding and abetting a breach of fiduciary duty; and conspiracy.
In addition to liquidated damages, Marsh is seeking punitive damages, actual damages, attorneys fees, and preliminary and permanent injunctive relief.
Topics
Lawsuits
Leadership
Aon
Construction
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