Last week, the Delaware Chancery Court in Ascension Insurance Holdings, LLC v. Underwood refused to grant injunctive relief to a Delaware company seeking to enforce a non-compete agreement against a California resident. In that case, Mr. Underwood, a California resident, participated in a sale of business assets and their associated goodwill to the Delaware company. … Continue Reading
A strong message to employers from the Court of Appeal this week to check your restrictive covenants, but this time to do it properly. None of that just casting an idle eye over the relevant page of your executive’s contracts – description of territory, tick; vague reference to competition, tick; not wholly fanciful restraint periods, … Continue Reading
Sometimes it must be tough being a High Court Judge, especially where you have to separate your distaste for a party’s ethics from the actual legal merits of his case. So hats off to Mrs Justice Simler for combining in Croesus Financial Services Limited –v- Bradshaw & Bradshaw last week a fairly gleeful trashing of … Continue Reading
In one’s darker moments at work the prospect of 12 months’ compulsory paid leave sounds like the way to go. In reality, the damage done to your name, skills and client connections could be very substantial. How could the employer ever justify that requirement? In JM Finn & Co Ltd v Holliday the High Court … Continue Reading
In 2013, Squire Sanders is presenting a series of webinars focusing on confidentiality and restrictive covenants around the globe. These webinars will provide participants with an understanding of the basic principles of restrictive covenants in different jurisdictions. On 14 November 2013 at 1pm GMT (5pm MSK, 2pm CET, 8am EST) our featured countries are Hungary … Continue Reading
Thomson v Apem (High Court) “Can you stop 18 employees leaving for a competitor” A recent High Court case (Thomson Ecology Limited & Others v Apem Limited, Hall & Others) serves as a useful reminder to employers about the importance of ensuring that you have appropriate restrictive covenants and confidentiality clauses in place for key … Continue Reading
In 2013 Squire Sanders is presenting a series of webinars focusing on restrictive covenants around the globe. These webinars will provide participants with an understanding of the basic principles of restrictive covenants in different jurisdictions. On 26 September 2013 at 9am BST (4pm CST & HKT) our featured countries are Hong Kong and China. Nick … Continue Reading
No, a recent decision of the Federal Court of Australia has confirmed. In Informax International Pty Ltd v Clarius Group Ltd [2012] Clarius, a labour hire company, supplied the services of an IT contractor through her own company Informax, to Woolworths. The contract between Clarius and Informax restrained her from working directly for Woolworths for … Continue Reading
The Supreme Court of Ohio reconsidered and reversed in part its May 24, 2012 decision, Acordia of Ohio L.L.C. v. Fishel (Acordia I) [pdf], that a surviving company in a merger may not be able to enforce employees’ noncompete agreements if the agreements failed to contain an assignment clause. The Court issued a partial correction of … Continue Reading
