Defending restrictive covenants and bringing breach of confidence claims

The Employment team has many years of experience in drafting and enforcing restrictive covenants and bringing breach of confidence claims against former employees. The team works very closely with the Dispute Resolution team who have a very high success rate in litigation if resolution was not possible prior to going to Court.

Restrictive covenants

Employers often overlook the fact that restrictive covenants are only enforceable if they are no wider than is necessary to protect the employer’s legitimate business interests. If they are too wide, they will fail altogether. It is necessary for the team to work very closely with the employer when drafting restrictive covenants so that they understand the employer’s business and the nature of the employees involved and the threat that they could pose to the business if they were to leave.

Whilst an employer might get away with a badly drafted contract if a restrictive covenant is worded carelessly or is just too wide, it will not protect the business at all. If an employee does leave and attempts to breach their restrictive covenants, the Employment team works very closely with the Dispute Resolution team to address the problem quickly. Speed is of the essence in these situations.

Confidentiality clause

It is also important that an employer is careful to have a well-drafted confidentiality clause in their contracts of employment. They are much more likely to be able to enforce a well-drafted clause than something that refers to confidential information in the abstract.