A month after one of JLL's top brokers left the firm, the Chicago-based real estate giant is suing her, arguing that she violated a noncompete agreement when she joined its biggest rival.
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JLL filed a lawsuit on Oct. 1 against life sciences power broker Molly Heath, alleging that Heath breached a one-year noncompete and transferred confidential information to personal accounts before leaving for a new position, the Boston Business Journal first reported.
Heath's hire as an executive vice president at CBRE was announced in September.
Heath didn't respond to Bisnow's request for comment. JLL declined to comment further on the lawsuit.
Heath worked at JLL for roughly 20 years, most recently serving as executive managing director and co-lead for the Boston life sciences practice.
JLL said in the lawsuit it gave Heath a $3M pay package in 2021, consisting of a $1.75M forgivable loan on top of $1.25M in performance bonuses, which included a noncompete clause.
Heath generated $10.8M in business for JLL between 2022 and 2025, and she paid off the existing loan balance of a little more than $1M four days before resigning from her role on Aug. 6, according to the suit.
The brokerage firm argues that even though the loan was paid in full, it doesn't equate to forgiveness.
JLL said in the suit the restrictions laid out "apply until the Debt set forth in the Promissory Note is fully forgiven (without any repayment by Contractor) or the end of the Restricted Period, whichever first occurs."
On top of the noncompete claim, JLL alleges that Heath forwarded 207 emails to personal accounts in the 30 days ending Aug. 5, with 146 of them forwarded between July 27 and 29. Five of these emails were sent to the work email of her husband, a Tishman Speyer executive, and other emails were sent to a personal account and a financial adviser, the company's attorneys wrote in the complaint.
JLL also claims that the firm lost three Cambridge agency assignments after Heath moved to CBRE.
Those clients are BGRE's, formerly Brookfield, 40 Thorndick St. property, Healthpeak Properties' Cambridge Discovery Park and BioMed Realty's University Park. JLL doesn't allege that she solicited them but wrote in the suit there is "continuing risk" that she will.
JLL is seeking for the noncompete to be enforced, barring her from working at CBRE and soliciting clients and staff.
CBRE isn't listed as a party in the lawsuit.
The suit comes as other Boston brokerage disputes have bubbled over this year.
In May, former Newmark Capital Markets brokers Matthew Pullen and Edward “Woody” Maher Jr. sued the firm and their boss, Rob Griffin, alleging that they were frozen out of deals and left the New York-based firm involuntarily.
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