2017 Update: Suing or Defending the Departing Texas Employee (Including Noncompetes/Trade Secrets/and Fiduciary Duties)

Hanna Norvell is a speaker for the Texas Bar's live webcast on April 13th, 2017 Update: Suing or Defending the Departing Texas Employee. In Texas, there has been an explosion of highly contentious litigation between employers and their departing employees over alleged breaches of non-compete agreements, trade secret misappropriation, and breaches of fiduciary duties. At the same time, the law in all three areas is rapidly changing in significant ways. As such, Texas lawyers who don't stay on the cutting edge are at a real disadvantage. This seminar will arm lawyers with the advanced legal tools and substantive knowledge they need to fight and win these types of cases.

Watch in the comfort of your own home or office! If you cannot watch the entire webcast at its scheduled time, register now and watch it when the recording is available after the broadcast. You will have until March 31, 2018 to complete the program at your convenience!

Learning Objectives:

• Obtain complete mastery of the tricky issue of the types of consideration that support a non-compete in Texas, including learning about a new case analyzing alleged "specialized training" as such consideration.
• Confidently navigate the legal thicket regarding the permissible scope of geographic limitations and restrictions on the scope of activities in non-compete agreements, including special focus on such restrictions as applied to sales persons and managers.
• Learn about how overbroad non-compete agreements may nevertheless be reformed and enforced, but how having an overbroad non-compete may: (1) significantly limit the recovery of damages for breach of the non-compete; and (2) potentially lead to a large attorneys' fee award against the employer.
• Understand the split between state and federal courts concerning when an overbroad non-compete may be reformed, and how the difference can dramatically impact whether or not a temporary injunction can be entered, as well as the ultimate recovery of damages.
• Learn about how courts analyze contractual provisions that do not bar competition, but instead exact a monetary penalty if the employee leaves and competes.
• Grasp the complexities of temporary injunction practice, including: (1) the effect of contractual stipulations of irreparable harm; (2) the effect of delay on an employer's ability to obtain a temporary injunction; (3) the unclean hands defense to entry of temporary injunction; and (4) whether an ex-employee's new employer is a necessary party to a temporary injunction action.
• Get the latest on choice of law and choice of forum clauses in non-compete agreements and similar agreements in the wake of the Texas Supreme Court's decision in Drennen.
• Find out our panelists' thoughts about the efficacy of some employers' attempts to obtain a non-compete by including a non-compete provision in a severance agreement.
• Gain insight into the actions an employee may lawfully take to prepare to compete against their current employer, and the actions that cross the line into an illegal breach of fiduciary duty.
• The Federal Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 - what is it and why does it matter?
• Take away critical teaching points from two blockbuster trade secrets cases decided in 2016, one by the Texas Supreme Court (Southwestern Energy Production Co.), and the other by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (GlobeRanger Corp.).
• Update on the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act, including one court's recent interpretation of the law that could largely negate the law's application to departing employees.
• The status of the controversial 'inevitable disclosure' doctrine in Texas.
• Find out what the Texas Supreme Court said last year about whether and when a court may bar an opponent's designated representative, and perhaps others, from the courtroom in a trade secrets case.  

For more information, please click HERE.