Willis Towers Watson sues Noonan over move to Alliant

Willis Towers Watson(WTW) has filed a lawsuit against its former North America construction industry leader William Noonan claiming that he has breached contract by taking, using, or disclosing confidential Information when he took a job at Alliant and by soliciting key employees on behalf of Alliant.

Noonan resigned on July 17, 2018 from his position at Willis Towers Watson, according to the court document, and was immediately named as the managing director of the construction services group of Alliant Insurance Services.

Willis Towers Watson claims that “Noonan’s resignation was part of a destructive, premeditated corporate raid on WTW’s North America CIP (construction industry practice) by Alliant.”

“To date, the raid has resulted in the immediate resignations of at least nine other employees, not one of whom provided their respective WTW Companies with any notice. WTW is aware of another 15 or so senior and junior level CIP employees who have been targeted by Alliant.”

WTW has also allegedly discovered that Alliant’s executives were generally discouraging employees who had contractual notice periods from providing notice, suggesting that if an employee gave the required notice, they would be asked to speak with Alliant’s lawyers.

“On information and belief, Noonan conspired with Alliant to identify those CIP employees that should be targeted for hiring by Alliant. Noonan told at least one CIP employee that at least one other CIP employee would be getting an offer from Alliant demonstrating that he had violated his undivided duty of loyalty,” WTW claims.

Noonan has breached his contract with WTW in that he is prohibited for two years from directly or indirectly soliciting key employees, among other things, according to the broker.

WTW also claims that as early as March 2018, Noonan was sending confidential and proprietary information to his personal email accounts.

WTW is therefore asking the New York court to issue a preliminary injunction followed by a permanent injunction enjoining and restraining Noonan from directly or indirectly disclosing confidential information to Alliant, using confidential information on behalf of Alliant, soliciting, accepting business from and providing services to relevant clients for a period of two years following July 17, 2018.

In addition, the injunction should ban Noonan from soliciting, accepting business from and providing services to relevant prospects for a period of two years following July 17, 2018, and from soliciting key employees for a period of two years following July 17, 2018.

Furthermore, WTW is asking the court to issue an order directing Noonan to preserve and protect any and all confidential information that he emailed to his personal email accounts and/or has in his possession or control, that the court issues an order directing Noonan to make his personal devices available for inspection by WTW to ensure that all confidential information is properly found and returned or deleted, as well as compensatory damages in excess of $75,000 and special damages to be proven at trial.

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