Compliance Stuff

The White House’s recent push to require all federal employees to sign non-disclosure agreements may have you wondering whether NDAs might be right for your organization. While they’re one of your most powerful tools for protecting confidential business information, trade secrets, and competitive advantages, they’re also one of the easiest agreements to get wrong. Here’s an eight-step plan for deploying effective and legally compliant NDAs. 1. If an Employee Accesses Confidential Information, Use an NDA If an employee has any access to confidential business information, then you should have them sign an NDA. They are your first line of defense against trade secret theft. These agreements are generally subject to far less scrutiny than non-compete agreements and can appropriately be used with a broader subset of employees. Trade secret laws require that employers take reasonable measures to protect the secrecy of their sensitive information, and having an NDA in place could help you ma...

Does an employer have recourse when a whistleblower steals confidential information? Companies routinely require employees to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements. These “NDAs” advance the employer’s entirely legitimate interest in protecting confidential and proprietary information. However, a question that often arises is the following: what recourse does an employer have when it learns that, on the way out the door, a former employee accessed extensive confidential information and sent it to their own personal email? Can the employer sue the former employee for breach of contract? Will the employer prevail? This is a topic which courts across the country continue to wrestle with. Resolving the issue requires striking a balance between an employer’s legitimate business interests and the rights of whistleblowers to preserve information needed to advance their legal claims. While the law remains unsettled, most courts consider the following three factors in deciding whether to side with th...