NONCOMPETES/NONDISCLOSURES

Noncompete litigation is the cornerstone of our practice. Clients hire Barakat + Bossa as a result of our expertise and involvement in this area of law as well as founding  partner Brian Barakat having led the Business Law  section of the Florida Bar Non-Compete Task Force.

We handle non-competes; restrictive covenants; non-solicitations; non-disclosure and anti-poaching which are issues that commonly arise in the sale of a business and the loss of a key person or in the movement of employees. Barakat + Bossa represents both the employer or the employee seller or buyer in these transactions. We have had consistent success litigating these actions at the state court level and appeal.

Companies utilize noncompete agreements primarily to restrict an employee, upon his or her departure from the company, from immediately working for a competing company and to prevent the revelation of important business information to that new company.

In Florida, such protected information can include: trade secrets, valuable business information that otherwise does not qualify as a trade secret, client or prospective client lists and extraordinary or specialized training.

Noncompetition agreements in Florida are enforceable as long as the following conditions are met:

• the duration of the agreement isn’t unreasonable. In Florida, six months is often considered reasonable, but a two-year noncompete agreement is likely to be viewed as unreasonable.
• the company wishing to enforce the agreement must have a legitimate interest in enforcing it and must not simply be overreaching or enforcing the agreement without good reason.

Good noncompete agreements contain nondisclosure clauses designed to restrict the revelation of “legitimate business interests” such as trade secrets and proprietary and confidential information.

It may be possible for a company protected by a nondisclosure agreement to sue for damages, legal fees and even profit disgorgement, whereby profits resulting from the wrongful disclosure are surrendered.

The burden of proof that a noncompete agreement is reasonable in its duration and scope is on the company wishing to enforce the agreement and not on the employee wishing to get out of the agreement.

A qualified business attorney familiar with noncompete and nondisclosure agreements is often utilized to illustrate that an agreement is unreasonable or that no legitimate business interest exists to enforce the agreement.

Contact our office today for legal assistance with noncompete agreements.