Employment Restrictive Covenants

David, with his background in heavyweight litigation, has many years of experience gained in successfully enforcing post termination restrictions on behalf of employer clients in the High Court (most notably in the ground breaking case of Sunrise Brokers v Rogers).

Based on his experience gained in enforcing such restrictions, David is perfectly placed to assist employers in drafting their restrictions in way that makes them most likely to be held enforceable.  The restrictions need to be legally drafted by an employment specialist like David and need to reflect the specific business interests which need protecting in terms of the damage which could be caused by your specific employee (due to their  seniority and influence) if they were to join your competitor.  The length of any restriction also needs to match the potential for damage and the time it would take you to protect your interests upon the departure of the specific employee.

Failing to include any post termination restrictions or to include ones which will not stand up in Court exposes your business to substantial risk and if you are looking to sell your business in the future may damage the price you can achieve for it.

The aim with a well draft restriction is to enable you to remind departing employees about its existence and where applicable, for you to threaten to enforce it, with aim of getting the rogue former employee to desist from any attempts to damage your business for the period of the restrictions.  Ideally you want that employee to show the restrictions to his/her lawyer and be told they are likely to be enforceable.

David can:-

• review the enforceability of your existing covenants for a fixed fee
• prepare tightly drafted restrictive covenants for maximum enforceability – to be used for new joiners or to vary existing terms
• prepare a letter to a former employee threatening to enforce restrictive covenants
• issue interim injunction proceedings
• give tactical advice on how to respond to suspected or actual team moves
• advise on the capture of evidence where you learn an employee is planning to set up in competition or to join one of your competitors

If you are seeking to recruit staff from one of your competitors, David can support you with tactics and planning to reduce the risk of you being successfully targeted for inducing a breach of any restrictive covenants.

The key with successfully seeking or threatening to bring an action in relation to restrictive covenants is to act swiftly, hence taking advice at an early stage is always advisable.

If you would like to discuss an issue relating to restrictive covenants please contact employment specialist David Greenhalgh on 020 3603 2177.