In today’s economy, when personnel are increasingly mobile and information exchange is virtually instantaneous, it is no longer sufficient to respond to intellectual property theft or unfair competition by former employees after it is discovered. Businesses must set into place effective technical, procedural and legal safeguards to prevent disclosures of proprietary information and departures of key staff before they occur, and be prepared to spring into action immediately upon learning of real or potential losses. Equally important, any business that hires employees or uses third-party vendors must recognize that it may face allegations that it benefited from inappropriate or illegal access to trade secrets.

With our extensive resources and lawyers located strategically across the United States, Hunton Andrews Kurth’s unfair competition and employee raiding practice provides sophisticated, rapidly deployable litigation counsel when and where our clients need us, whether the matter involves a leak of critical information or the mass hiring of an entire office of employees by a competitor. We are fully prepared to initiate emergency proceedings, conduct expedited or compressed discovery, and proceed to trial without the benefit of advance disclosures, particularly when unnecessary delays may jeopardize a clients’ position in court—and in the marketplace.

Our skilled litigators are deeply familiar with the tools used to create, disseminate and protect intellectual property assets, and with the various laws that govern intellectual property and employment issues from state to state and at the federal level. Above all, our lawyers have extensive trial experience. Our team includes numerous courtroom veterans able to structure and deliver a clear, persuasive case that merges client objectives with the evidentiary requirements of the law. Outside the courtroom, we help clients and their vendors develop and implement comprehensive trade secret protection as well as employee retention and non-disclosure schemes, including the use of enforceable non-competition and non-solicitation agreements, policies and procedure manuals, trade secret audits, and facility and data security protocols.

• Obtaining injunctions in multiple jurisdictions across the country protecting trade secrets and mandating the return of stolen information and documents.
• Obtaining injunctions in multiple jurisdictions across the country prohibiting employees from performing similar work for a competitor.
• Obtaining injunctions in multiple jurisdictions across the country prohibiting former employees from unlawfully soliciting their former customers and employees.
• Obtaining ex parte temporary restraining orders in trade secret cases, which allow immediate seizure of computer equipment and storage media from former employees to prevent disclosure of trade secret information and customer personal identifying information.
• Creating and successfully implementing resolution strategies, that do not involve lawsuits, in regard to allegations of trade secret theft, unfair competition, and unlawful solicitation of clients.
• Drafting and negotiating non-disclosure, non-competition and non-solicitation agreements as part of corporate transactions and as a means to protect company assets.
• Counseling involving identification and protection of trade secrets and critical confidential information.