Noncompetes, Trade Secrets and Employee Fraud

In today’s competitive marketplace, protecting a company’s trade secrets, proprietary information, assets and customer relationships is critical. We believe a proactive, preventive strategy is the best way to insulate clients from unfair competition and employee fraud. We can assist you in addressing:

McGuireWoods attorneys have extensive experience representing companies in enforcing noncompete, confidentiality and trade secret agreements throughout the United States. As employers have become more dependent on sophisticated technology, the need to draft comprehensive agreements and policies, and then enforce them in court through injunction proceedings, has grown ever more important. At the same time, due to rapid developments in technology, confidential information and trade secrets become stale in the blink of an eye. As a result of these and other fundamental changes, companies must have an up-to-date arsenal of cogent agreements and policies that are well-drafted and readily enforceable in court.

The Best Offense

McGuireWoods attorneys help companies protect what is theirs by drafting and enforcing effective noncompete, trade secret, and confidentiality agreements and policies. We also counsel employers on how to negotiate settlements prior to litigation and, when needed, we fight for our clients’ interests in court.

We primarily represent employers in both challenging and defending noncompetition and other similar agreements. We also represent individual employees in such matters on behalf of the companies who seek to hire them. We have pursued former employees on theories such as unfair competition, conspiracy, breach of contract, unjust enrichment, misappropriation of trade secrets, quantum meruit, breach of fiduciary duty (based on activity against the employer's interest while still employed), and similar bases. These matters are staffed by lawyers from our Labor & Employment, Commercial Litigation and Intellectual Property Litigation departments.

The Best Action

Often parties do not realize the level of commitment required to engage in such litigation until they are in the middle of it. We believe that a well-defined analysis of the risks and rewards serves our clients’ interests. That said, once the decision is made to proceed, we move rapidly and decisively to take the appropriate course of action.

Speed is often critical in such matters, and we have not only the legal experience, but also the practical experience and resources to strike quickly. We have an established network of supplemental resources such as investigators and computer forensic analysts, who allow us to maneuver effectively when prompt action is required.