Non-competition, non-solicitation, and confidentiality agreements
Our attorneys move swiftly and effectively to seek enforcement and defend claims in matters related to breach of non-competition, non-solicitation, and confidentiality agreements. Our experience includes:
- Securing a $2 million award, including punitive damages, in a contested FINRA arbitration. Prior, we obtained a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. The arbitration panel ruled a departing employee breached non-solicitation and confidentiality agreements, and held the departing employee’s new employer jointly and severally liable for the award.
- Securing a landmark decision on enforcement of a restrictive covenant against a departing employee before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which held that continued at-will employment constitutes lawful consideration to support a restrictive covenant signed by a current employee.
- Secured stipulated injunctions in favor of our client in multistate, simultaneous litigation, holding defendants to the terms of their contractual non-competition and non-solicitation obligations.
- Successfully enforced a non-competition agreement when a top regional salesperson was hired by a competitor. Our team secured a temporary restraining order within days of the employee’s departure, leading to the employee’s resignation and a favorable case settlement.
- Secured a high-dollar settlement for our client after instituting a FINRA arbitration against departing employees who breached terms of their non-solicitation and confidentiality agreements.
Unfair Competition and Theft of Competitive Intelligence Claims
Our team helps clients resolve theft of trade secret matters with solutions that prevent further damage and effectively compensate clients for their loss. Our experience includes:
- Securing a settlement that required a retiring high-level executive to agree to amended restrictive covenants, reduced buyout, and removal from leadership after our team’s data breach analysis uncovered massive data theft by the executive.
- Securing a settlement that provided compensation for the loss and heightened obligations, preventing further solicitation after a departing employee provided proprietary bid information to a new employer and used it to unfairly compete.
- Securing dismissal of a seven-count complaint alleging theft of trade secrets and other types of unfair competition on behalf of departing-employee clients. The plaintiff appealed but agreed to a nominal settlement before a ruling on appeal.
- Securing a favorable settlement including the return of proprietary data after our analysis revealed massive data theft by former employees on behalf of their new employer.
- Securing a favorable monetary and heightened-restrictive-covenant settlement after forensic analysis spearheaded by our team revealed strong evidence of a former employee’s theft of trade secrets and violation of a non-competition agreement.
Emergency Injunctive Relief
Our attorneys successfully obtain and defend against requests for emergency injunctive relief, often within hours or a few days, in cases involving alleged breaches of restrictive covenants or theft of trade secrets. Our experience includes:
- Securing a temporary restraining order one day after the case was filed – shortly after the COVID-19 shutdowns began – that required a departing employee to return copies of stolen competitive intelligence.
- Defending both corporate and individual clients against requests for temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions that would have prevented specific sales activities. Rejection of the TRO request prompted a favorable settlement for our clients.
- Defeating a temporary restraining order request and obtaining partial dismissal of ten separate data theft claims made against an entire departing team by a former employer.