Another Poaching Suit For Alliant

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has filed another poaching lawsuit against Alliant Insurance Services Inc. This one, filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago,  alleges that eight Gallagher employees based in Chicago resigned in July and began soliciting business from Gallagher’s clients. In 2020, Gallagher sued Alliant in Delaware, alleging that it targeted more than 30 Gallagher employees and took 80-plus clients in an illegal staff poaching scheme. It had previously sued Alliant in federal court in California with essentially the same complaint in respect to 10 former employees there. The Chicago suit claims that on July 11 three Gallagher employees who worked with each other on several accounts said they were resigning “effective immediately.” They each had signed an employment agreement requiring them to provide 21 days’ written notice of their resignations. Five more Gallagher employees followed suit soon after, the lawsuit says. It alleges that the resignations are “part of a concerted course of action by Alliant designed and intended wrongfully to steal business from competitors rather than compete through lawful means.”