Brown and Brown secures court win against Howden

US courts granted injunctions in late December 2025 that restricted hiring, client solicitation and the use of confidential information following mass departures of brokers to Howden, in two separate cases brought by Brown and Brown and Aon.

In Brown and Brown v Howden US Services, the Suffolk County Superior Court in Massachusetts issued a company-wide temporary restraining order on 29 December 2025 after it was claimed 200 employees left overnight on 18 December.

The court said the plaintiffs had demonstrated a “substantial likelihood of prevailing on the merits” of their claims and that irreparable harm would result without intervention.

The order restrained individual defendants from soliciting or inducing Brown and Brown staff to join Howden and from soliciting or servicing clients they had worked with during the previous 24 months.

It also required the return of confidential information and company devices within seven days.

Further developments

The injunction extended to Howden US Services, which the court enjoined from soliciting Brown and Brown employees and from pursuing certain client accounts connected to the departing staff.

The order also required Howden to return any confidential information received from former Brown and Brown employees on or after 18 December.

A procedural order set a status conference for 12 January 2026 to determine the timing and scope of an evidentiary hearing on preliminary injunctive relief and expedited discovery.

One week earlier, on 22 December 2025, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a preliminary injunction in Aon v Howden.

That order similarly required the return of confidential information and restricted the solicitation and servicing of clients connected to former Aon employees who had joined Howden.

The two rulings marked the first court-ordered restraints following Howden’s entry into the US market earlier in 2025, after it recruited hundreds of employees from established brokerages.

Littler, the employment law firm representing Brown and Brown and Aon, described the decisions as decisive wins for employers facing large-scale employee lift-outs.