Florida-based Keller Williams franchisees are alleging that prominent eXp Realty team leader Veronica Figueroa and Joseph Firmin have breached a contract and misappropriated trade secrets in their recruiting efforts.
The suit was filed earlier this month in the Ninth Circuit Court for the State of Florida by Keller Williams Advantage 2 Realty in Waterford, Keller Williams Advantage Realty in Oviedo and Keller Williams Advantage III Realty in Lake Nona against Figueroa, the leader of The Fig Team, and Firmin the director of growth and agent success at The Fig Team.
Prior to his role at The Fig Team, the complaint claims that Firmin worked for two of the KW franchises, KW Advantage 2 Realty and KW Advantage Realty, where he worked as a team leader. In November 2021, the complaint claims that Firmin signed a confidentiality and non-solicitation agreement, which prohibited him from recruiting away any KW agents for a period of two years after leaving KW Advantage 2 Realty.
Firmin was relieved of his duties working for KW Advantage 2 Realty in late 2022, but he remained as a team leader for KW Advantage Realty, where he was terminated in late January 2025.
Despite leaving KW Advantage 2 Realty and remaining only at KW Advantage Realty, the complaint claims that Firmin “understood and acknowledged that he was still governed by the Agreement.”
Since his termination, the complaint alleges that Firmin has recruited agents away from both KW Advantage 2 Realty and KW Advantage Realty, as well as Keller Williams Advantage III Realty.
The Fig Team did not return a request for comment.
According to the plaintiffs, Firmin engages with agents at the three offices directly and indirectly by doing things like “having agents of such offices on his personal podcast, and communicating to Plaintiffs’ agents that he ‘misses them,’ which is an obvious attempt to initiate a recruiting conversation.”
“The foregoing has caused multiple agents to leave their engagements with one or more of the Plaintiffs’ offices,” the complaint states.
In the complaint, the franchisees accuse him of breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets. These alleged trade secrets include “improperly disclosing Plaintiffs confidential financial data, payment data, broker split details, and payment information to third parties without Plaintiff s consent or authorization [and] using Plaintiffs Trade Secrets for purposes other than those for which they were intended, thereby violating Plaintiff s rights in its Trade Secrets.” They claim that this has caused them over $80,000 in damages.
“Firmin has damaged Plaintiffs by engaging and seeking to engage agents at their respective offices, in that Plaintiffs will not receive revenue associated with the sales of such agents that have affiliated with The Figueroa Group and/or eXp because of Firmin’s actions,” the complaint states.
As for Figueroa, she is accused of tortious interference and the plaintiffs claim that she caused them over $50,000 in damages.
The plaintiffs are asking the court for damages as well as an injunction barring Firming from recruiting away the KW franchisees’ agents for two years after Jan. 20.
