WTW Sues Former Yacht Team, Howden US Over Defection

Howden US is again being sued by a rival broker over another group of new employees who are alleged to have breached loyalty and post-employment contractual obligations.

According to a lawsuit filed May 19 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida by Willis Towers Watson Northeast, former members of its marine team specializing in broking insurance for high net-worth owners and managers of high-end yachts all resigned to join Howden US “consistent with Howden’s playbook of hiring entire teams from other insurance brokerage companies and having those former employees violate their duties of loyalty while still employed and then breach their post-employment restrictive covenants.”

The Broward County, Florida-based unit of WTW is seeking damages, and preliminary and permanent injunctions against the team—Nancy Poppe, Diana Fabozzi, Jasmyn Tomlinson, Kathleen Shea, and Christel Lynn Lincoln.

Poppe was senior director-broking for WTWNE. According to the suit, she is now employed by Howden US as practice head of yachts and chair of Howden superyachts. She resigned from her former employer on Dec. 22, 2025 but is alleged to have contacted members of her team before resigning. According to the suit, Lincoln also resigned on Dec. 22, 2025.

Poppe allegedly sent an email to clients announcing her resignation “for the purpose of soliciting these clients’ business on behalf of Howden.”

Fabozzi, Shea, and Tomlinson resigned from WTWNE early this year along with another team member, Alexandra Walker, who is not named as a defendant, according to the suit, which also outlines allegations that some clients have been solicited by the team, evidenced by its receipt of broker-of-record letters appointing Howden as clients’ new broker.

The annual amount of revenue lost by WTWNE after losing a at least a six clients to Howden US is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, the company alleged.

WTW is already suing Howden as well as brokers Marsh, Aon, Alliantand Brown & Brown.

Howden could not immediately be reached for comment.

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Lawsuits
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