By Michael Loney

April 22 - (The Insurer) – Marsh has sued Aon and its new CEO of construction, infrastructure and surety, North America, over the hire of a team of 20 earlier this year.

The Insurer was first to report in March that Aon had hired Marsh’s U.S. construction leader Rob McDonough and a team from the unit at its rival.

Aon confirmed later in March that McDonough had rejoined the company as CEO of construction, infrastructure and surety, North America, and that Brian Hodges had also joined from Marsh as head of surety, North America.

On April 17, Marsh USA sued Aon Risk Services Companies and Robert McDonough in the Southern District of New York.

“The seeds of this action were sown in January 2025 when Aon – a direct competitor of Marsh – lost a team of employees from its surety business to another competitor," the complaint said.

“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, in violation of Marsh’s legal rights.

“Defendants’ scheme resulted in a brazen taking of the core of Marsh’s Construction Surety business – its confidential information, its employees and its clients,” it continued.

Marsh and Aon declined to comment for this article.

Marsh alleges that after luring McDonough away, Aon identified and recruited key members of Marsh’s construction surety team, and along the way improperly used Marsh’s confidential personnel and compensation information.

“Defendants’ raid of Marsh’s Construction Surety unit culminated in the coordinated resignation of 20 employees … in the span of just 38 minutes on March 10, 2025. Defendants’ scheme did not stop with poaching Marsh employees but also targeted established Marsh clients as well,” the complaint said.

Marsh alleges that Aon, McDonough and the other departing employees solicited and/or attempted to solicit Marsh clients to move their business to Aon. This included one of Marsh’s longstanding clients, which announced that it was moving its business to Aon on March 11.

“Since then, other Marsh clients have followed suit, announcing plans to move their business to Aon. Additionally, just days after his defection, McDonough sent a call invitation on behalf of Aon to a client to discuss a project on which he had worked extensively while employed by Marsh,” the complaint said.

Marsh said that McDonough misappropriated and misused its confidential information, including employee and personnel information, for the benefit of Aon.

The complaint alleges that McDonough has repeatedly violated his contractual and legal obligations to Marsh.

“Defendants conspired to steal the core of Marsh’s top-tier Construction Surety business unit for the benefit of Aon and are competing unfairly and in violation of McDonough’s contractual duties and other legal obligations,” the complaint said. “Marsh therefore seeks reparation for the harm Defendants have inflicted.”