Restrictive Covenants

Schulte Roth & Zabel has one of the leading practices in the area of restrictive covenant agreements and litigation. Working with private investment firms, other employers and senior executives in a wide range of industries, we have substantial experience handling non-compete matters from all angles and at all points in the employment relationship when matters involving restrictive covenants arise. We counsel clients on the use of, and limits on enforceability of, non-competition, non-solicitation and confidentiality provisions, and draft contractual provisions that protect a client’s trade secrets, confidential and proprietary information and other legally-protected interests. We also counsel clients when they hire new employees including when new employees are bound to restrictive covenants, and the best practices for protecting proprietary, confidential and trade secret information and other legally-protected interests when employees leave.

When necessary, we go to court to litigate the scope and enforceability of restrictive covenants. Our employment attorneys are very experienced litigators and have a strong record of successfully representing clients in restrictive covenant cases, including at trial and on appeal.

Representative Experience

• IBM v. Johnson: Fought against IBM’s attempt to prevent our client from working at Dell Inc. The District Court’s decision denying IBM’s motion for preliminary injunction was upheld on appeal by the Second Circuit.
• IBM v. Visentin: Successfully fought IBM’s attempt to prevent our client from working at Hewlett-Packard. The District Court’s decision denying IBM’s motion for a preliminary injunction was upheld on appeal to the Second Circuit.
• MasterCard v. Kelly: Negotiated a settlement agreement enabling a high level executive to work at American Express after leaving MasterCard in allegedly contravention of her non-compete.
• Maxim v. PrinceRidge: Defeated a broker-dealer’s motion for a temporary restraining order, permitting our client to hire immediately 19 employees from its competitor.
• Tullett Prebon v. BGC Partners: Counsel to Tullett Prebon in an arbitration before FINRA and a state court action to recoup damages resulting from the raid of nearly 80 Tullett Prebon brokers by BGC.