Employee Mobility and Restrictive Covenants in New York

A key employee just resigned, took a thumb-drive containing gigabytes of his or her former company’s confidential information, and is now working for its competitor. He or she is contacting customers and is also attempting to hire away employees. If you are the employer, what do you do? What could you have done to prepare for this situation? For the employee, what should he or she have done to position themselves best in the inevitable litigation regarding their actions?

Scenarios like this are occurring with greater frequency now that the job market is improving, talent is highly sought after, and electronic information is easy to take. Gone are the days where paper files locked in a file cabinet offered sufficient protection. Electronic information can be taken in massive quantities without a business even knowing what or how much has been taken.

In these situations, many businesses often look to enforce restrictive covenants in employment or other agreements and find that they lack adequate legal tools to effectuate meaningful damage control. This is frequently because the company suffered from a common misconception that “non-compete agreements” are unenforceable or the covenants they have are mismatched to the harm suffered.

Join Laurent Drogin and David Kleinmann of Tarter Krinsky & Drogin, LLP as they discuss employee mobility and other issues relating to restrictive covenants. In this course Messrs. Drogin and Kleinmann discuss:

The different types of “restrictive covenants” including covenants not to compete, not to solicit, accept or service and non-poaching covenants; the common misconceptions about the different types of restrictive covenants; the showing required to enforce restrictive covenants; and what should be considered when drafting restrictive covenants in employment or asset-purchase agreements.

Learning Objectives:

I.    Gain familiarity with the basic aspects of the law impacting restrictive covenants and employee mobility

II.   Grasp what else is needed besides restrictive covenants to protect an employer’s interest

III.  Understand what employees can do to aid in their ability to move on and still deal with customers they worked with at a former employer

IV.  Comprehend what is required for the enforcement of restrictive covenants

Program Attorney: Sigalle Barness