In Abrasic 90 Inc. v. Weldcote Metals, Inc., 364 F. Supp.3d 888 (N.D. Ill., 2019), U.S. District Court Judge Tharp of the Northern District of Illinois provides a virtual checklist of the steps a company should consider if it wants its important information to be treated as a trade secret. Alternatively, the decision serves as a valuable reminder of what happens if an employer fails to implement appropriate protective measures. Continue reading
The Nevada Supreme Court reversed an injunction entered by a district court, when it found the employer failed to put on sufficient evidence to justify an injunction enforcing a 50-state non-compete against a former employee. Here’s what happened. Continue reading
Sometimes a party to a contract gets greedy. As an example, sometimes a party seeks an onerous non-competition provision in a contract. Will a court enforce it? Will the court modify the agreement if it is too broad in some respect? Let’s see how this played out in a real case. Continue reading
Most severance agreements these days specify that nothing in the agreement prevents the employee from speaking with regulators about possible violations of the law. This is due to regulators’ concerns that the confidentiality clause that is standard in severance agreements may chill employee whistleblowing.
But what about other employment agreements that have confidentiality clauses?
Employees sign all sorts of agreements with confidentiality restrictions, ranging from offer letters to deferred compensation award agreements. Must these agreements also exempt whistleblowing from their confidentiality obligations?
