Defending and dealing with post-termination restrictions / covenants
Starting a new role should not come with legal threats. If your former employer alleges you have breached restrictive covenants, we act quickly to assess the risk, respond strategically, and protect both your new job and your reputation, especially where injunctions and pressure on your new employer are in play.
When you start a new role, the last thing you want is to be pursued by your former employer claiming that you have breached your covenants and seeking an injunction to stop you from working.
What’s worse, your former employer will also try and find a way to involve and include your new employer – not the best first impression to make in a new role.
Your former employer may be looking to impose a non-compete clause to stop you from working in competition. These are restrictions usually reserved for those who hold confidential information, like CEOs, rather than those who could poach clients, like Sales Directors.
If you are client facing, then your former employer may be seeking to stop you ‘soliciting/poaching’ or ‘dealing with’ clients. These are less restrictive than a non-compete as they allow you to work, just not in a way that negatively impacts your former employer by taking or dealing with its clients/customers.
More common and, potentially easier to enforce, will be terms seeking to stop you poaching colleagues from your former employer.
You will likely receive a ‘cease and desist’ letter from your former employer asking you to stop acting in breach and to sign an Undertaking. This letter is key to understand its concerns and, importantly, any evidence it has to support your alleged breach of your covenants, and any loss it has suffered.
From here, there are several ways the matter can progress. While it is usual to respond in detail, time is of the essence, so if your former employer is going to seek an injunction, it will need to act quickly.
If a claim is made, provided the covenants are reasonable on the face of it and there is some basis for your employer to claim, the Courts will likely award an interim injunction. That can be challenged at the later return hearing, but by then the damage will be done. Costs are also a major consideration as the losing party will likely have to pay the legal fees of the winning party, making these a very expensive outing for someone.
If faced with threats of an injunction, and especially if your new employer is involved, we can help navigate the best way through the matter seeking to protect you from a claim, while trying to preserve your new job.
Get advice on your covenants
Speak to our team for clear, practical guidance tailored to your circumstances.
