Arthur J. Gallagher settled its raiding suit against Edgewood Partners Insurance Center (EPIC) with both parties saying they reached a mutually agreeable and confidential resolution to the matter.
Itasca, Ill.-based insurance broker Gallagher sued EPIC, based in San Mateo, Calif., after 49 employees left Gallagher's California offices to go to work for EPIC in late 2007, according to filings with the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California in San Francisco.
The move left the broker's San Ramon, Calif., facility "crippled" after 47 of the office's 76 employees left over a period of a week, Gallagher said. In addition, two employees in the firm's San Francisco office also resigned without notice.
Gallagher accused EPIC of illegally raiding its offices of employees "and the associated theft and use of confidential Gallagher data to unfairly compete and steal millions of dollars of business."
Within weeks of the employees leaving, Gallagher said it lost 30 clients resulting in the loss of "several million dollars in revenue," and those clients signed broker of record letters with EPIC. Additionally, at least one client moved their business to another broker believing that Gallagher could not service the account properly with the loss of personnel in its office, the broker said.
The defections included Gallagher's San Ramon office heads, human resource and office manager, and the systems administrator, producers and key support staff.
EPIC and other defendants denied the allegations.
According to court records, within a few short months of the initial Dec. 20, 2007 filing, the parties began to engage in negotiations, making the proceedings confidential due to proprietary information.
EPIC, an insurance brokerage firm, was created in 2007 through a private equity firm managed by Stone Point Capital. In addition to San Mateo, the company operates offices in Los Angeles, Orange, Irvine, Folsom, San Francisco and San Ramon, Calif.
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