Insurer Howden and founder hit with fresh lawsuit by PIB Group over poaching
Insurance intermediary group PIB and its subsidiary Acquinex have launched legal proceedings in the High Court against rival Howden and several individuals.
According to the claims system as seen by City PM, PIB Group-based Acquinex instructed law firm Mayer Brown to take legal action against Howden Group, its entity Dual International and four people, including the founder David Howden.
The claim is listed as an employment case, filed to the King’s Bench, naming David Howden, who founded the group in 1994, Richard Clapham, Paul Smith and Adam Love.
The documents containing the information of the claim have yet to be supplied, but some of the names listed as defendants appeared in stories by the trade press last month.
The Insurer reported in mid-January that Acquinex’s head of transactional risk, Paul Smith, resigned with an estimated 20-plus warranty and indemnity insurance team to join Howden’s arm Dual.
Smith, a trained lawyer, was at Acquinex for over six years, serving in multiple senior roles. While Love, also a trained lawyer, was head of transactional risks in Northern Europe for Acquinex for over four years.
Clapham is the CEO of Dual, Howden’s managing general agent arm.
Commenting on this matter to City PM, Brendan McManus, CEO of PIB Group said: “On 10 January 2025, a number of employees decided to leave the PIB Group business Acquinex after being approached by our competitor, DUAL Group, the underwriting division of Howden.”
“PIB Group has proceedings in the High Court against Howden and others. We hold ourselves to a high standard of doing business and will not be silent when we feel others have acted unfairly and unlawfully towards us and our employees.”
He continued: “We are a people-first business, and our priority continues to be ensuring that we provide the best quality service for our clients and brokers. Chris Jackson and Chris Thompson continue to lead the business, while providing best-in-class results for clients”
“Our investigations are ongoing at this time and we are not able to comment further,” he added.
City PM has approached Howden for comment.
Separately, City PM revealed in November 2023 that Aon sued Howden over poaching ‘raids’. This case is still open, with parties attending several application hearings since.
This came after Howden was sued over poaching earlier in 2023 by reinsurance business Guy Carpenter and its parent company, Marsh McLennan.
The insurer settled this case in October 2023, and according to Insurance Business, it had to agree to a set of demands, including issuing an apology.