Non-Competition, Business Information, and Trade Secret Protection

At Wyatt, we understand the importance of standing apart from competitors.  Regardless of the nature of your business or institution, your success is often dependent upon your key business relationships and your trade secrets and other competitive business information.  In many instances, these valuable assets are entrusted to your employees, contractors, and associates upon whom you depend to grow your market share.  These employees, contractors, and associates, however, are more mobile than ever.  Inevitable workforce turnover can expose your company, endanger the confidentiality of your business information, jeopardize customer relationships, and lead to unfair competition.

The members of Wyatt’s Non-Competition, Business Information, and Trade Secret Protection Team know how to protect your bottom line by identifying and implementing measures to guard against unfair competition and trade secret theft.  Our attorneys routinely draft enforceable, comprehensive confidentiality, non-competition, and non-solicitation agreements to provide the maximum level of protection permitted for our clients’ needs.  Our team also advises clients on the implementation of policies and procedures (or the audit of existing policies and procedures) that can improve the management of confidential information in today’s digital age where proprietary information can be compromised in ever evolving ways.

Our team knows how important it is to engage in robust, front-end due diligence when entering into new business or employee relationships.  On a daily basis, we assist clients in nationwide hiring decisions by reviewing restrictive covenants and analyzing the restrictions pursuant to applicable laws of relevant jurisdictions.  We further assist our clients in structuring their new business and employee relationships.  This includes counseling clients on “firewall” measures that can promote compliance with existing restrictive covenants and help to avoid unnecessary risk, business disruption, and expensive legal complications.

Additionally, our team has extensive experience in enforcing restrictive covenants and contesting overly broad restrictive covenants in courts all across the country.  We are especially sensitive to the immediate action that is required in these types of cases, which often proceed on expedited schedules.  We readily provide the urgent assistance needed to obtain or defend against extraordinary relief, like temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions.  In fact, through our quick action and “sense of urgency,” we have stopped employee conspiracies, trade secret theft, and employee raids in their early stages, saving our clients from experiencing significant irreparable harm.

Wyatt’s Non-Competition, Business Information, and Trade Secret Protection Team’s relevant experience includes:

• Representing a global company on all restrictive covenant issues for U.S. personnel, including advising on the hiring of new employees and representatives, litigating enforcement actions nationwide, and defending against competitors’ enforcement actions nationwide.
• Counseling a major U.S. retailer on the development and implementation of confidentiality, non-competition, and non-solicitation agreements for personnel in multiple states.
• Litigating cases involving restrictive covenant, trade secret misappropriation, breach of fiduciary duty, tortious interference with business, conversion, civil conspiracy, breach of duty of loyalty, and other similar claims in the following industries:  manufacturing, distribution and supply, healthcare, medical technology, finance and securities, banking, technology and design, transportation, insurance, energy, and environmental services.
• Counseling healthcare facilities, physician practices, and physicians in the development and negotiation of employment and non-competition agreements.
• Litigating the enforcement of non-competition agreements between hospitals and physicians as well as between private practices and physicians.
• Representing securities brokerage firms against departing employees subject to restrictive covenants and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) rules governing customer account transfers.
• Representing insurance brokerage agencies against former key employees, who took trade secrets and other confidential information for use at competitor insurance brokerage agencies.
• Conducting and assisting with internal investigations.
• Providing in-house education, counseling, and advice to sales force and other business representatives on policies and procedures for the management of confidential information and trade secrets.