NU Online News Service, March 18, 3:33 p.m.EST

A U.S. District Court judge has ordered Aon and Marsh insurancebrokerages to negotiate a settlement for a lawsuit that allegesthree former employees of Aon stole trade secrets and clients fromtheir former employer when they joined Marsh.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard M. Berman, in Manhattan,yesterday ordered the two parties to "engage in good faithsettlement negotiations forthwith."

According to court filings, Aon Risk Services Northeast Inc., aunit of the Chicago-based insurance broker Aon Corp., said threeformer employees, Michael Kornblau, Tyler Wendleken and KarrynAngoff joined Marsh just last month and took with them companytrade secrets.

Aon also accused the three of poaching 50 clients and robbingAon of key employees "so that Aon no longer had brokers withexisting relationships with the targeted clients."

In response, Marsh said by e-mail, "We do not believe there isany merit to the litigation and are aggressively defending thelawsuit."

The Aon complaint, filed Monday, said the three employeesdownloaded proprietary trade secrets and unlawfully disclosed thosetrade secrets to Marsh.

Aon says the three had access to information concerning itstrade credit practices and the information exposed to Marshincluded proprietary information on its trade credit practice,identity of clients and their purchasing decisions and contactinformation.

The complaint identifies Mr. Kornblau as a managing director inthe trade credit insurance broker area, who purportedly enteredinto a written agreement to protect the firm's trade secrets. BothMr. Wendleken and Ms. Angoff are identified as brokers, who thoughthey did not sign a similar agreement, Aon claims, were well awareof the proprietary nature of Aon's business.

Aon does not identify the lost accounts, noting them as "DOES"but reserved the right to amend the complaint once it has fullyidentified what it says is the loss of up to 50 clients. Financialinformation regarding the firm's loss was redacted from thedocument.

Aon is seeking the return of a bonus to the employees, pluscosts and punitive damage.

In an e-mail message, a representative from Aon said thecomplaint stands on its own and there would be no furthercomment.