Non-Compete Agreement Litigation Strategies

Description

Employers often require employees to sign non-compete agreements, or other restrictive covenants, to safeguard their trade secrets, client lists, customer data and business relationships. Non-competes can include restrictions on employees engaging in their own business as well as becoming an employee of a competitor.

Although non-competes have drawn increasing criticism, they can have legitimate and valid uses. For example, a former employee divulging closely guarded confidential information and/or trade secrets can cause millions of dollars in damage, and it is not surprising that many companies look for protection. For employees, however, non-competes can be burdensome and overly restrictive on efforts to advance one’s career. It is a difficult balance.

As the use of such provisions has proliferated, non-compete lawsuits also have increased over the years and are among the most challenging for employers’ counsel given the complexity, time sensitivity, and high dollars and risk involved. Variation in controlling legal standards only increases the difficulty for counsel.

Listen as our distinguished panel reviews best practices for pre-litigation, as well as trial strategies once litigation has commenced. The panel will provide counsel with an analysis of applicable causes of action and possible defense theories.

Outline

1. The prevalence and form of non-compete agreements
2. Non-compete litigation, trial tactics, and settlement
3. Employee’s anticipation of litigation
4. Non-compete litigation: preparing for prosecution
5. Employee’s initial analysis: non-compete agreement pre-litigation concerns
6. Employer’s perspective: drafting enforceable agreements

Benefits

The panel will review these and other key issues:

• The prevalence and form of non-compete agreements;
• The employer’s perspective and considerations in drafting enforceable non-competes;
• The employee’s perspective and concerns regarding non-competes;
• Preparation for prosecuting breaches of non-competes, viewed from both sides;
• Non-compete litigation, trial tactics and settlement strategy;
• Strategies for using and enforcing restrictive covenants outside the United States.

Webinar

Strafford webinars offer several options for participation: online viewing of speaker-controlled PowerPoint presentations with audio via computer speakers or via phone; or audio only via telephone (download speaker handouts prior to the program).  Please note that our webinars do not feature videos of the presenters.

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