A company’s trade secrets, proprietary information and business relationships are among its most valuable assets. In today’s fluid economy, protecting these essential resources is critical to maintaining a company’s competitive edge. Similarly, hiring from the competition in a manner that maximizes legitimate competitive advantage yet minimizes legal risk is just as important.

Our attorneys who practice Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets have a keen understanding of both the legal and business needs to respond quickly and effectively to situations involving intellectual capital and customer relationships. We appreciate that clients confronted with decisions about these critical business issues need a trusted advisor who can provide them with solutions that are both strategic and practical. Our deep subject matter experience, size, and geographic reach, coupled with an intense focus on superior client service and the highest quality work, enable us to handle a wide spectrum of matters, both as advisors and litigators. 

Advisors

We provide strategic advice to employers on all critical aspects of the employment relationship, from initial hiring to maintaining security and monitoring of highly confidential information, to departure. We work closely with clients to draft agreements containing post-employment restrictions that are tailored to their particular needs, with a view towards maximizing the likelihood of multi-jurisdictional enforceability—both nationally and often internationally. We also counsel clients on securing their confidential information and customer relationships when key employees leave the company and join a competitor.

When a company wants to hire an employee from a competitor, we can provide advice on the best approach so that a client can maximize legitimate competitive advantage and minimize litigation risk.

We work with both national and multi-national clients and thus are familiar with the nuances, not only of state and federal laws including, for example, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Economic Espionage Act, but also of the laws and requirements of key countries around the globe. Littler has its own international offices and also works with affiliated law firms in Europe, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, Asia and other parts of the world.

Litigators

A signature of our practice is helping our clients avoid costly litigation through a variety of preventive measures, such as conducting unfair competition and trade secret audits and coordinating forensic examinations and investigations. Yet, when litigation is appropriate and necessary, our lawyers move quickly, whether the matter at hand involves TRO/injunction proceedings, expedited discovery or a full-blown trial on the merits. Thanks to our numbers, our subject matter experience and our geographic footprint, we are able to work with our clients with minimal business interruption on their part to identify the issues, gather the evidence, prepare the necessary court papers, and move quickly to a hearing or trial. We work extensively with forensic, economic and industry consultants and experts and with our own internal eDiscovery attorneys and support personnel to streamline the investigation and discovery process.

We also work closely with clients to reach creative settlements that result in positive business outcomes. We are frequently sought out by the ABA and BNA and other prominent national legal organizations to share our knowledge of unfair competition and trade secret litigation strategies.

Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets Contacts

James M. Witz

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What should we be doing to protect our trade secret information, particularly with remote workers?

What should we be doing to protect our trade secret information, particularly with remote workers?

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