Labor & Employment
Eager Job Hoppers May Face Suit for Taking Clients, Co-Workers
Posted Nov 6, 2007, 10:47 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Those who switch jobs are increasingly facing lawsuits for trying to poach co-workers or clients before moving to a new employer. And sometimes the plaintiff is a law firm.
The suits typically allege breach of fiduciary duty and do not necessarily rely on noncompete agreements, the Wall Street Journal reports (sub. req.).
Poached clients were at issue in one lawsuit filed by Pennsylvania law firm Brett Senior & Associates against an accountant who left to join an accounting firm it considered a rival. The suit contended the accountant showed a potential employer a list of clients he served and the fees many of them paid, the newspaper reports. It also contended the accountant called about 20 clients, partly to solicit business for his new job, before leaving the old one.
U.S. District Judge Mary McLaughlin of Philadelphia dismissed several counts related to the list in a July ruling, but allowed a breach of fiduciary duty claim based on phone calls that involved solicitation of business.
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