Eastdil Alleges Ex-Employees Took Trade Secrets to Newmark Gig
Eastdil alleges six former employees in Southern California, immediately hired by Newmark after their resignation, took confidential and proprietary documents despite confidentiality agreements
By Nick Trombola April 4, 2025 3:05 pm
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Eastdil Secured is brawling with several former Southern California employees who jumped ship last month for Newmark (NMRK).
On Monday Eastdil filed a lawsuit against six of its former employees alleging that the group took confidential and proprietary documents and information from their former employer to use at its competitor despite confidentiality agreements, Commercial Observer has learned.
Eastdil is seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction pending arbitration for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of loyalty duty, misappropriation of trade secrets, tortious interference with contracts, tortious interference with business and contractual relationships, and unfair competition.
Eastdil filed its complaint with the Superior Court of Orange County against Geoff Boler, Eugene Chong, Blake Matsuda, Jonathan Merhaut, Lee Redmond and Justin Shepherd, who previously worked with the firm’s West Coast multifamily team in its Newport Beach and Santa Monica offices. The brokerage claims that the group began working for Newmark “almost immediately” after resigning from Eastdil in early March, taking with them “documents relating to active deals Eastdil was working on, prospective deals for Eastdil, as well as templates, proprietary documents and models,” according to the lawsuit.
Representatives for both Eastdil and Newmark declined to comment on the lawsuit.
“The documents taken by defendants allow them to attempt to take Eastdil’s current business and clients to Newmark, and also allow them to easily re-create documents at Newmark for future deals because they have Eastdil’s templates and models,” the complaint alleges. “Indeed, for one of the deals for which defendants improperly took Eastdil confidential information, the client canceled the listing agreement with Eastdil and is now using defendants and Newmark to bring the deal to market.”
The lawsuit also alleges that aside from taking documents and other confidential information, the former employees deleted documents and emails off of Eastdil’s systems entirely, or saved them in areas they wouldn’t normally be saved, in an effort to derail the brokerage’s work on certain deals.
Peter Bauman, an attorney for law firm Callahan & Blaine representing the group, vehemently denied Eastdil’s claims.
“My clients have gone above and beyond to honor their obligations to their former employer,” Bauman told Commercial Observer. “Eastdil’s allegations are all either false or seriously misleading and are a bad faith attempt to impose restrictions on competition, which is unlawful in California.”
Newmark announced its hiring of the veteran team on March 5, with Boler set to join as executive vice chairman, Merhaut and Redmond as vice chairmen, and Chong as senior managing director at Newmark’s Orange County outfit.
Boler and Merhaut in particular were part of a four-person group with more than $100 billion in closed deals between them. The group has likewise been behind over 90 percent of all multifamily sales in the Western U.S. over the past seven years, with an average deal size of $300 million, per Newmark.
“These individuals bring an incredible level of professionalism, esteem and accomplishment to our company,” Chad Lavender, Newmark’s president of capital markets for North America, said in a statement at the time.
In addition to the restraining order and preliminary injunction, Eastdil’s also wants its records, documents and information back within 24 hours of a court order.
Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.
Update: This article has been updated to include a statement from the employees’ counsel.
