Brown & Brown Charges Former VP With Poaching Clients, Breaching Agreements

Florida-headquartered Brown & Brown, one of the largest insurance brokerages in the country, this week filed a federal lawsuit against a former vice president, charging him with secretly setting up a competing business and poaching clients.

The lawsuit in the federal court system’s Middle District of Florida contends Westyn Swenson, based in Texas, conspired with Nathan Gilbert Insurance Agency and Legacy Insurance Group to lure at least three dozen clients from Brown & Brown. It was all in violation of Swenson’s non-compete employment agreements, the complaint alleges.

The defendants have not yet filed an answer to Brown & Brown’s complaint. It’s the latest poaching lawsuit in an industry that has seen a rise in those types of legal actions in recent years. At the same time, no-poach employee agreements have been successfully challenged in some states. In 2023, the New York Attorney General’s office forced property-casualty and title insurance companies to pay $13.75 million in fines for their “anti-worker” non-poaching agreements.

In the Brown & Brown case, the trouble began in 2021, when Swenson worked at Hillco West Texas insurance agency, where he agreed not to solicit Hillco’s clients should he leave the firm, the suit contends. Secretly, though, Swenson had formed Swenson Capital, which Brown & Brown said “was founded for the purpose of competing with Hillco while still employed thereby.”

The publicly traded Brown & Brown, based in Dayton Beach and with offices around the country, acquired Hillco in 2024. Swenson went to work for B&B as vice president for sales, and he signed a new employment agreement.

A few months later, Swenson left B&B and began working with Legacy Insurance Group, which has offices in Florida and Texas. Nathan Gilbert runs his own agency in Iowa Falls, Texas, which is a branch of Legacy Insurance, according to the agency’s website.

“Since beginning work with the Legacy Defendants under the guise of the Swenson Defendants … Swenson has solicited and accepted work involving no less than thirty-seven customer insurance policies he had previously serviced on behalf of Brown & Brown, using misappropriated confidential information, to benefit the Legacy Defendants,” the complaint reads.

The suit argues that the defendants used Swenson Capital “as a smokescreen for their business relationship.” The complaint includes a Google Maps Street View image of the purported address of Swenson Capital, which appears to be a vacant lot in Nocona, Texas.

The alleged poaching and tortious interference have cost Brown & Brown significant amounts of money and have divulged trade secrets, the suit alleges. The suit asks for at least $50,000 in damages and a court order requiring Swenson to comply with his employment agreements.

Swenson could not be reached for comment.