In a June 9 ruling, a federal judge denied Aon a temporary restraining order against Alliant Insurance Services related to the latter’s alleged “unlawful raid” of employees to start a reinsurance business.
Last month, Aon filed suit against Alliant, claiming that Alliant took 26 of its employees, reinsurance business, and confidential information as Alliant looked to get into the reinsurance market and “jumpstart the launch of Alliant Re, Alliant’s own reinsurance division and a new Aon competitor in the facultative reinsurance broking industry.”
Related: Aon Sues Alliant Over ‘Unlawful Raid’ of Reinsurance Group
Aon also filed for a temporary restraining order (TRO) to prevent its former employees from doing business with Aon clients, and to return Aon devices for forensic investigation.
Judge John J Tharp Jr. U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois said in his order that Aon “has not demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits of its claims or that it will suffer irreparable harm if the defendants’ conduct is not enjoined, its motion for a TRO is denied.”
Aon claims the the group of former employees stole trade secrets but Tharp said the allegations are “speculative” and “based on a premise that the [former employees] had no legitimate reason to access that information in the days leading up to their resignations.” Tharp said the defendants submitted declarations that they accessed the information to continue working for Aon until their departures.
Tharp went on to conclude that Aon has no reason to prevent its former employees from soliciting clients they worked with at Aon to renew with Alliant, partly because “Alliant would be primed to know about and compete for impending renewal business by virtue of its new hires’ prior work at Aon. Still, Aon has not cited any evidence or provided any declarations from anyone attesting that Alliant actually breached the non-solicitation covenant by attempting to steer renewals of policies Aon previously brokered to Alliant.”
Alliant Insurance Services announced on April 25 the launch of Alliant Re, its reinsurance brokerage division.
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