Global insurance broker Marsh USA filed suit against competitor Aon and a former Marsh team leader for allegedly poaching key members of Marsh’s construction surety team who resigned and moved to Aon last month.
A complaint filed by Marsh in federal court in New York accuses Aon and its former construction and surety team leader, Robert McDonough, of a “brazen taking” of its construction surety business, including its confidential information, employees and clients.
According to the lawsuit, the scheme culminated with the “coordinated resignation of 20 employees in the span of just 38 minutes” on March 10, 2025.
As a result of the alleged raid, Marsh said it lost numerous clients representing millions of dollars in revenue annually and has suffered harm to its client relationships and its reputation and goodwill in the brokerage industry.
“Aon could not execute the plan to raid Marsh alone—it needed an inside man and enlisted McDonough, a senior leader in Marsh’s construction surety business unit, to use his knowledge of Marsh’s confidential information and his relationships with Marsh’s employees and clients to advance an unlawful scheme and raid Marsh’s construction surety business,” according to the complaint.
Aon declined to comment on the lawsuit when contacted by Insurance Journal.
Aon Lost Own Team
The lawsuit contends that the scheme began before McDonough and the others left Marsh, soon after Aon lost a team of its own surety employees to another competitor in January. “Rather than invest the time and money to rebuild its surety practice piece by piece, Aon opted for a quicker, unlawful fix: simply pluck a significant portion of Marsh’s construction surety business unit to fill its need,” the lawsuit says.
McDonough joined the Marsh construction surety team in New York in March 2016 as the practice leader and he maintained that senior leadership role for nearly a decade. According to Marsh, McDonough was privy to its highly confidential information and trade secrets, including information about Marsh’s workforce and clients. McDonough is accused of leading the mass resignation on March 10 when he submitted his resignation at 10:45 a.m. and 19 others followed his lead, including 70% of McDonough’s direct reports.
