A California insurance brokerage owned by Gallagher has filed a lawsuit accusing a rival firm, The Liberty Company Insurance Brokers, of stealing employees, clients, and confidential data. The lawsuit was filed on March 17 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California by AssuredPartners of California Insurance Services.
The suit names five former AssuredPartners employees—Kevin Reed, Ramon Fuentes, Alexandra Ghica-Ochoa, Atif Awan, and Iris Dela Torre—alongside Liberty as defendants. It alleges that these individuals took confidential client information before leaving and began directing business to Liberty even before their official resignations. If these claims hold up, the employees could be found to have breached their duty of loyalty under California law.
Court documents reveal that Liberty hired at least 47 employees from AssuredPartners over nine months, with departures across offices in Ventura, Bakersfield, Santa Maria, and Newport Beach.
The lawsuit includes specific claims against each individual. For example, Ramon Fuentes, who worked for AssuredPartners for 34 years, allegedly sent a broker-of-record change letter to a client two days before leaving, asking for the account to be moved to Liberty. Atif Awan reportedly contacted a client on his first day at Liberty with documents pre-filled using AssuredPartners’ data. Kevin Reed is accused of emailing a detailed business spreadsheet to his personal account in late 2025. Iris Dela Torre allegedly sent sensitive client documents, and Alexandra Ghica-Ochoa reportedly used AssuredPartners’ data to prepare materials for Liberty and deleted her browser history before departing.
AssuredPartners points out that carrier notifications of account changes came almost instantly after the employees left, which the company argues is suspicious because legitimate account transfers usually take some time.
The company is pursuing claims under federal and state trade secrets laws, breach of loyalty, and other related charges. They are seeking injunctions, damages, and disgorgement.
This case is one of several that The Liberty Company has faced since 2020 with similar accusations from industry competitors. No decision has been made yet, and the case remains ongoing.
The lawsuit is officially filed as AssuredPartners of California Insurance Services, LLC v. Reed et al., Case No. 8:26-cv-00601 in the Central District of California.