Employee Competition

Every business is reliant on the skills, knowledge and loyalty of its workforce.  When the loyalty of a trusted employee or team is lost, decisive steps are required.

Littleton has always been at the cutting edge of the developing law of employee and director duties, and the injunctive relief potentially available to restrain employee competition.

The prowess of Littleton leading practitioners is evident in their publications: Brearley and Bloch "Employment covenants and confidential information" (Tottel, 2009) co-authored by Selwyn Bloch QC , is the leading text on this subject; Fiduciary Duties, Directors and Employees (Jordans 2008) by Andrew Stafford QC and Stuart Ritchie has instantly attained indispensable status for solicitors and barristers in the field.

Key cases include:

Team moves and springboard injunctions:

• Tullet Prebon v BGC Brokers [2010] EWHC 484 high profile trial arising from an alleged conspiracy and team move in the inter-dealer broker market
• UBS Wealth Management v Scott, Vestra and others [2008] IRLR 965.

Garden leave:

• Standard Life Health Care Ltd v Gorman [2010] IRLR 233 (CA)
• SG & R Valuation Service v Boudrais [2008] IRLR 770
• Tullet Prebon v BGC Brokers [2010] EWHC 484 (see above)
•  William Hill v Tucker [1998] IRLR 313

Springboard injunctions and restrictive covenants:

• TFI Derivatives Ltd v Morgan [2005] IRLR 246
• Brake Brothers v Ungless [2004] All ER (D) 586 (Jul)
• Thomas v Farr [2007] IRLR 419 (CA)
• Kynixia v Hynes [2008] EWHC 1495 (QB)

Fiduciary duties:

• Tullet Prebon v BGC Brokers [2010] EWHC 484 (see above)
• Helmet Integrated Systems v Tunnard [2007] IRLR 126 (CA)
• Symbian v Christensen [2001] IRLR 77 (CA).

Database regulations:

• Penwell Publishing v Ornstein [2007] IRLR 700 (High Court) the first case to use the Database regulations in the employee competition context.