Restrictive covenants employment solicitors
Protecting your confidential information, key staff and customers
Losing a key member of staff to a competitive business can be damaging for any organisation. They may seek to take confidential information and other key members of the team with them. The first line of defence for any business is to have enforceable restrictive covenants in place from non-compete and non-solicitation clauses to well-drafted confidentiality terms and garden leave provisions. However, sometimes protecting the business may require you to take court action and seek an injunction to stop ex-employees from using confidential information or poaching your staff or customers.
Why do you need a lawyer?
Our lawyers can help you draft the restrictions that best protect your business in the first place, limiting the risk of losing staff to competitors, poaching customers, colleagues and team moves and using your confidential information to the advantage of your rivals.
We have experience of working in the High Court to take preventative action and successfully obtaining urgent injunctions to enforce contractual obligations and can discuss with you the best and most cost-effective strategy to protect your business interests. We can advise on claims against your ex-employees and their new employers including claims for loss of revenue. We also work with forensic IT specialists to recover or identify deleted data.
We can also keep you updated on recent proposed changes to restrictions and alternatives to best protect your business.
How our lawyers can help
If you need help reviewing post-termination covenants in employment contracts issued to staff, urgent advice to prevent a key or team move or the loss of confidential information please contact or experts here.
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FAQs- Restricted Covenants and Team moves
This is a type of clause in a contract which seeks to restrict a party from acting in a certain way. In employment contracts, they are often used to seek to prohibit an employee from doing something after they have left employment, such as soliciting customers and employees or working in a competing business.
The most common types in an employment context are:
- Non-solicitation clauses – seeking to prevent an ex-employee from contacting certain customers and employees
- Non-employment clauses – seeking to prevent an ex-employee from offering employment to certain employees even if they do not solicit the contact initially
- Non-dealing clauses – seeking to prevent an ex-employee from dealing at all with certain customers even if they do not solicit the contact initially
- Non-compete clauses – seeking to restrict an ex-employee from working for a rival
Yes. They must go no further than is necessary to protect the employer’s legitimate business interests but provided they meet the legal tests associated with this they are legally enforceable.
Contact our specialist team at Clarkslegal and we can talk you through your options and help guide you through the process.
They may face legal action from the employer. This could include a claim to recover any loss the employer has suffered as a result of their actions and/or an injunction to prevent the employee from continuing to act in breach.
