Cushman & Wakefield has filed a lawsuit against two of its former high-profile capital markets brokers, claiming they breached their employment contracts by joining one of the firm's largest and most direct competitors.

The brokerage filed the lawsuit in Dallas County District Court Tuesday against Mike McDonald and Jonathan Napper weeks after the duo left Cushman & Wakefield and joined JLL. By agreeing to work at a rival — and allegedly swaying five other brokers and two executives to join them at JLL — McDonald and Napper breached their contracts with Cushman & Wakefield that included multimillion-dollar signing and retention bonuses, according to the lawsuit.

Cushman & Wakefield said the five-year employment contracts signed on Oct. 2, 2018, included an "eight-figure payment" in exchange for McDonald and Napper to agree to noncompetition and nonsolicitation provisions that protected the firm's "highly valuable confidential information," according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit spotlights an area of contention in the highly competitive commercial real estate industry, where brokerages can depend on high-profile brokers to lure large amounts of revenue and new clients, often from rival firms. McDonald and Napper resigned from Cushman & Wakefield in mid-September and "immediately accepted the same or similar roles" at JLL, allegedly taking Cushman & Wakefield's "confidential business information, several clients and all of Cushman & Wakefield's Dallas-based institutional investment sales brokers" or advisers with them, the lawsuit said.

McDonald and Napper, both named as defendants in the lawsuit, had not filed a legal response as of mid-Tuesday. Napper declined to comment to CoStar News. McDonald told CoStar News he was "not at all worried" about the allegations because he is headed to London for a year for both business and pleasure with "lots to do in Europe" to keep him occupied.

"I am fully aware of my restrictive covenants with my previous employer, and I have honored those and plan to do so," McDonald told CoStar News. "I won't do anything to harm Cushman & Wakefield or their clients."

Under the terms of Cushman & Wakefield's contracts with McDonald and Napper, the duo cannot engage in any real estate work in the United States prior to Sept. 17, 2023, according to the lawsuit.

Cushman & Wakefield is asking the court to put "an immediate stop" to McDonald and Napper allegedly using the firm's "sensitive and proprietary information," which Cushman & Wakefield said it has spent years and enormous resources developing. In the filing, Cushman & Wakefield is seeking monetary relief of more than $1 million and a request for a temporary restraining order.

Cushman & Wakefield declined to comment beyond the lawsuit. JLL did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

Cushman & Wakefield isn't the first commercial real estate brokerage to take legal action when a high-profile team leaves to join a competitor. Newmark sued three of its former apartment sales brokers last year for breach of contract when the team left and joined CBRE. A judge ruled in favor of Newmark, preventing the CBRE team from doing business for one year in Colorado. Brokers could be subject to more lawsuits as brokerages dole out significant sums of money, equity or ownership to recruit the top players as they compete for business.

Cushman & Wakefield claims it uses its noncompete clauses sparingly, according to the filing, and only when "essential to protect its investments in certain key teams and individuals — particularly when it outlays significant financial and other resources to recruit and retain such teams and individuals, as it did here."

McDonald and Napper have worked together for more than eight years, becoming an accomplished office investment sales team. Both brokers held senior-level positions and were vice chairmen at Cushman & Wakefield, where they worked for about four years. Prior to that, they both worked at Eastdil Secured.

Cushman & Wakefield also claims the brokers either directly or indirectly through their new employer solicited or attempted to solicit at least seven Cushman & Wakefield employees to JLL. After the departure of McDonald and Napper, five other investment sales group brokers resigned between Sept. 27 and Oct. 3, according to the lawsuit. Additionally, two nonbroker executives were also offered roles on the JLL team.

"Cushman & Wakefield has already suffered significant injuries and continues to suffer harm as a result of the defendants' breaches," the filing said. "Such harm includes, but is not limited to, canceled real estate transactions with existing clients, loss of goodwill, and loss of employees whom Cushman & Wakefield must now replace."

McDonald routinely participated in national discussions with Cushman & Wakefield's senior leaders that provided him a high-level of insights into recent trends on pricing, debt market levels and global capital capacity, according to the filing.

The longtime broker "leveraged national relationships within Cushman & Wakefield to gain international business, even traveling internationally to give the client comfort on a transaction," the legal suit said.