18 WTW agents quit in 44 minutes, walked next door to competitor Lockton — and allegedly took $5 million in clients

18 WTW agents quit in 44 minutes, walked next door to competitor Lockton — and allegedly took $5 million in clients

Christy Bieber

Thu, September 10, 2026 at 6:25 PM GMT+3 5 min read

• WTW +0.92%

On Aug. 19 at 8:02 AM, an employee in Boston quit their job at Willis Towers Watson, a global insurance brokerage. That's not unusual. But what happened next is. Seventeen more employees quit in short order, and by 8:46 AM, 18 workers had left WTW.

Those employees didn't go far. They walked out of their office at 125 High Street in Boston and into the office next door at 225 Franklin St., where they began their new careers at Lockton, one of the world's largest privately held insurance brokerage firms — and WTW's direct competitor.

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The departing employees allegedly took with them clients who generated over $5 million in annual revenue for WTW, according to Boston.com. And WTW is concerned Lockton may be going after additional clients.

Unsurprisingly, WTW has filed suit, but the question is whether it is likely to win. And the answer may not be as clear as you'd think.

Insurance brokerage giant claims "brazen, severe, and outrageous" conduct

Willis Towers Watson is understandably upset that 18 of its employees left to work for a competitor, and it has filed a lawsuit asking the court to grant both a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to prevent Lockton from servicing the accounts the employees took with them, and to stop the company from continuing to solicit other clients or employees.

As WTW's court complaint states, Willis Towers Watson believes this injunction is necessary because "The size and significance of this raid, and the egregious way Defendants systematically sought to pilfer WTW's client relationships, require commensurate relief."

WTW also claims Lockton's conduct and that of its employees was "brazen, severe, and outrageous," and that the mass departures clearly indicate that Lockton orchestrated a "smash and grab" of both its customers and staff.

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Did Lockton and the employees do anything wrong?

Since no court hearing has been held, it's not clear whether misconduct occurred. However, experts weighed in on the rules that apply and, despite the brazenness of the mass departures, WTW isn't necessarily guaranteed a win.

"There's generally nothing inherently unlawful about a competitor recruiting another company's employees, even a large number of them at the same time," Ryan Eddings, a California labor and employment attorney at Hanson Bridgett LLP, told Moneywise. "The fact that 18 employees resigned within 44 minutes may be compelling evidence that the departures were coordinated, but coordination itself is not necessarily a legal wrong."

Edwin Aiwazian, CEO at Lawyers for Justice, agreed, telling Moneywise, "The fact that 18 employees resigned within 44 minutes is certainly something that draws your attention, but the fact that they coordinated their resignations doesn't mean that the resignations were unlawful. It is generally the case that employees have the right to quit their jobs."

However, this doesn't necessarily mean WTW has no grounds to pursue a claim. "The important issue is what took place before those resignations and what happened afterward," Aiwazian said. "If the employees had been actively diverting business, using confidential information, or breaching enforceable contractual obligations, then a completely different situation would have been created."

As Thomas Ricotta, founder of the employment law firm Ricotta & Marks, P.C., told Moneywise, "There's an important difference between competition and unfair competition. An employee who leaves to join a competitor using their own knowledge or relationship base is in a very different legal position than one who downloads a customer database before leaving and uses it to immediately move those customers to the new company."

WTW does claim that the departing employees violated their fiduciary duties, breached contracts, and violated non-solicitation and non-compete agreements. WTW also alleges that Lockton aided and abetted them, and that the agreements the workers signed are standard in the industry. And, WTW claims confidentiality breaches occurred.

However, Eddings also explained that states have different laws on post-employment restrictions, with some states, like California, prohibiting non-competes and restricting enforcement of non-solicitation agreements.

Eddings said that in states like California where the rules limit restrictive covenants, "once an employee's employment ends, that employee may frequently compete directly with the former employer and solicit the same workforce or customers, provided the competition is conducted lawfully and without misuse of protected information."

Massachusetts also restricts non-competes, but agreements can be enforced in some cases if they meet certain standards. Workers who left were also located in many different states, and non-solicitation agreements are often treated differently than non-competes. So, if WTW can prove the workers violated enforceable agreements or misused confidential information, the company may get legal relief.

But unless that's the case, the company may simply have to start hiring and rebuilding — and perhaps consider a location switch to make it a little harder for competitors to poach its new staff this time around.

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This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com under the title: 18 WTW agents quit in 44 minutes, walked next door to competitor Lockton — and allegedly took $5 million in clients

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.