Employment litigation and executive exits

Restrictive covenants, executive departures, and the trade-secret cases that follow them. Colorado rewrote its non-compete rules, and most of the agreements still in force were drafted before it did.

Where the disputes start

Almost every employment matter we try began as a resignation somebody handled badly — on one side or both. A senior person leaves, a customer follows, and a contract nobody had read since the day it was signed turns out to be the whole argument.

• Non-compete, non-solicit and confidentiality enforcement, and defence
• Trade-secret misappropriation under the Colorado and federal acts
• Executive separation, deferred compensation and equity disputes
• Discrimination and retaliation claims, through to trial

Covenant thresholds

Colorado now enforces a non-compete only against workers paid above an annually adjusted earnings threshold, and a customer non-solicit against a lower one. An agreement that was enforceable when it was signed may not be enforceable against the same person today, and the notice requirements are their own trap.

The practical consequence is that both sides of these cases are now fought on facts about pay and notice as much as on the covenant language itself.

Before anyone resigns

The cheapest version of this work happens before the departure. We read the agreements you actually have, tell you which would survive a hearing, and say plainly which are not worth the letter it would take to assert them.