PRACTICE

Trade Secrets and Restrictive Covenants

Overview

Pierson Ferdinand’s Trade Secrets and Restrictive Covenants Team excels at helping our clients safeguard their proprietary information to maintain their competitive edge in the marketplace. We offer innovative and cost-effective solutions to clients spanning various industries nationwide, empowering them to shield against the theft or misuse of their valuable information.

Through the development of policies and the drafting of agreements, we enable clients to secure their proprietary information and trade secrets, mitigating the need for litigation. With the recent FTC guidance, this practice area is more critical than ever.

  • Trial-Tested Litigation Prowess

    Our Litigation team excels in discerning the critical aspects of a case and collaborates closely with our clients to ensure that litigation is managed in a manner that advances their ultimate objectives. We work diligently to resolve immediate issues and help our clients avoid similar challenges in the future, while striving to provide value-add to our clients in an effective representation.

  • Bench Strength and Industry Experienced

    PierFerd Litigation partners provide clients across various industries globally with comprehensive commercial litigation and dispute resolution services. From coast to coast, in state and federal courts, our experience spans from appellate to high-stakes commercial and corporate fraud litigation, to IP and insurance related disputes, with the ability to scale up for our clients as and when necessary.

  • Client-Focused Approach to Disputes

    We view our seasoned litigators as an extension of our clients’ in-house legal teams, working collaboratively to achieve optimal outcomes through strategic partnership, early intervention, and a comprehensive approach to dispute resolution.

  • Team-Orientated, Comprehensive Strategies

    We seamlessly collaborate with other practice groups to leverage and bring to bear the appropriate industry experience wherever necessary, ensuring litigation strategies are comprehensively addressed, including matters related to banking and financial services, cyber-risk, healthcare, insurance, intellectual property, employment and labor, and real estate, among others.

Capabilities

We provide ongoing guidance to help minimize the risks associated with employee transitions to competitors or when clients hire groups of employees from rivals. In situations where litigation becomes inevitable, we act swiftly and assertively to halt the theft of our clients’ critical information.

Preserving our clients’ intellectual property demands policies and agreements thoughtfully tailored to their specific business needs while holding up under legal scrutiny. We assist clients in crafting policies and implementing programs for the identification and protection of their trade secrets and other safeguarded information. Our attorneys possess a deep understanding of the laws designed to safeguard our clients’ intellectual property rights, including the Uniform Trade Secrets Act and The Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016. We also draft, review, and put into practice non-competition, non-solicitation, no-poach, no-hire, and non-disclosure agreements.

Mitigating risks takes top priority for our clients. We provide value-add by acting as trusted advisors, guiding clients through the complexities of employee hiring and termination, including independent contractors and consultants, to ensure their protected information remains uncompromised, thus avoiding potential litigation. Our attorneys conduct trade secret audits, assisting clients in identifying, cataloging, and valuing their assets. We also help implement policies and procedures for their safeguarding. Moreover, we collaborate with investors and companies engaged in corporate transactions, offering diligence on trade secrets and intellectual property-related matters.

When necessary, our attorneys act promptly and efficiently to obtain or block applications for temporary restraining orders or preliminary injunctions. We litigate and defend various competition-related claims, encompassing breach of non-competition, non-solicitation, non-interference, no-hire, no-poach, and non-disclosure agreements, breach of intellectual property agreements, misappropriation of trade secrets, employee raiding, breach of fiduciary duty, unfair competition, tortious interference, and claims protected under federal and state laws. In cases involving criminal claims arising from the theft of a client’s protected information, our attorneys collaborate with federal and state investigators. We recognize that litigation must align with our clients’ business objectives and diligently strive to expedite favorable case resolutions.