The exodus of the 17, who all worked on the General Mills account, happened three days after Burns left the agency. Burns spent 25 years working at Saatchis, which is owned by the Publicis Groupe.
The former employees were then hired by the Interpublic Group, where a new internal agency was set up called OneSeven at the office of Interpublic's Lowe in New York.
In the New York State Supreme Court, Saatchi sued for damages of $3m stating breach of fiduciary duty, breach of the duty of loyalty and breach of contract.
Burns retaliated, filing a motion to dismiss the suit, stating that Saatchis had failed to stand up any claims of damage to the agency as the New York office had not lost any General Mills business since the exit of Burns and the ex-employees.
Saatchis original claim sought a ruling to ban Burns from "directly or indirectly launching any company or taking employment with any advertising, marketing or communications company who had General Mills on its client roster."
In a ruling in January, a New York Supreme Court judge said the request was "overbroad" because Saatchi had "failed to specify either a time or geographical limitation to the restrictions requested".
Following the out of court settlement, Interpublic release a statement: "The terms of the settlement are confidential; however, the agreement reached resolves all legal claims and disputes between the two parties, as well as disputes between Saatchi & Saatchi and various individuals who left Saatchi & Saatchi in February 2005."
Burns reacted to the settlement stating: "I'm absolutely thrilled with the settlement and the move to put the suit behind me. I feel like a gigantic burden has been lifted from my shoulders. I still have many friends at Saatchi and I wish them well, but Saatchi represents the past."
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