The rivalry between Eastdil Secured and Newmark is heating up.
In a new lawsuit, Eastdil alleges that members of its West Coast multifamily team that bolted for the competitor last month took a treasure trove of information on their way out the door — and even poached an active deal the company was working on.
The allegations ramp up the tensions between Eastdil and Newmark’s capital markets group. The Newmark team, led by former Eastdil kingmakers Doug Harmon and Adam Spies, has been raiding top talent from their former employer. Both Harmon and Spies left Eastdil in 2016 for Cushman & Wakefield; they then joined Newmark in 2023.
Eastdil on Monday filed a lawsuit in California’s Orange County Superior Court claiming six brokers who left for Newmark last month breached their contracts and stole trade secrets.
“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 recreate documents at Newmark for future deals because they have Eastdil’s templates and models,” the complaint read. “Indeed, for one of the deals for which defendants improperly took Eastdil confidential information, the client cancelled the listing agreement with Eastdil and is now using defendants and Newmark to bring the deal to market.”
The brokers named in the suit are Geoff Boler, Lee Redmond, Jonathan Merhaut and Justin Shepherd (who worked in the company’s Newport Beach office) and Eugene Chong and Blake Matsuda (from the Santa Monica office).
Two other brokers who left at the same time — Joseph Smolen and Eve Loecher — were not named in the suit.
The former employees are accused of accessing company documents before they left in order to take off with Eastdil’s proprietary information.
Boler, a ten-year employee who earned more than $1 million last year, allegedly sent an email from his Eastdil account to his personal account with nine of the company’s “cheat sheets” for active deals attached.
These summaries contain key deal terms, including themes, pricing guidance and portfolio summaries that are essential for client pitches. Eastdil said these could be extremely valuable to a competitor like Newmark.
“In fact, for one of the deals for which Boler emailed himself the cheat sheet, the client cancelled the listing agreement with Eastdil after Boler resigned and is now using Boler and Newmark to bring the deal to the market,” the complaint read.
An attorney representing the brokers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Eastdil is suing for breach of contract and stealing trade secrets, and is seeking a restraining order and temporary injunction.
Brokerages going against former employees isn’t uncommon in commercial real estate. But it is extremely rare for Eastdil, which has a more high-minded company culture compared to other CRE shops.
There seems to be a good amount of tension lingering between Eastdil leaders and the Harmon team nearly a decade after the two split. And Newmark has been hiring so many of CEO Roy March’s employees that Harmon’s capital markets team is beginning to resemble a mini Eastdil.
Newmark last year hired debt broker Jonathan Firestone, who had spent more than 20 years at Eastdil.
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Newmark poaches top Eastdil broker
