Trade Secrets - A Good Article to Read

I could not decide how to digest Musical chairs: brokers and insurers must fight to retain their clients when key employees leave. The article covers a lot of territory - some of it focused upon in my earlier posts on trade secrets. Yes, the article focuses on the insurance industry but the following points apply equally to any type of business:

Companies have a variety of ways to protect themselves when employees leave and try taking business with them, said Steven A. Goldfarb, a partner with the Cleveland-based law firm of Hahn Loeser & Parks.

These legal tactics include pursuing violations of common law, fiduciary duty or the Uniform Trade Secrets Act against the defector and rival company. One common tactic is pursuing violations of restrictive covenants, which are contracts that limit what employees can do after they leave a company.

Such documents can include geographical covenants, which restrict an employee from working for a competitor within a certain area for a certain length of time. Another is the non-solicitation covenant, which restricts an employee from soliciting the company's clients or employees for a certain period of time.