Our employment experts are hosting a webinar series looking at the important role restrictive covenants plays.
In the wake of the pandemic and with the cost of living rising, labour supply has presented a challenge for employers. Whilst reward and flexibility are central to attracting and retaining talent, employers also need to minimise risk by ensuring their business is protected should a key employee resign. Restrictive covenants play an important role here.
Watch each session below as it becomes available.
Designing a global contractual restrictive covenant framework
- We look at the business protection strategies that organisations can adopt across the key jurisdictions in Europe
- Exploring which elements can be consistent and which need to be modified when working across jurisdictions such as the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Scotland and Poland.
- London Head of Employment Nick Dent will quiz a panel of our international experts on when and how much you need to pay during the covenant period; the relative merits of garden leave and covenants; can you import fiduciary-like duties into contracts like the duty to report on your own wrongdoing; the difference between management and non-management staff; whether shareholder covenants (sometimes governed by a different law) are more easily enforced; and what you should do about internationally mobile staff.
- Ending with the one-minute speed view of the regime in the key global locations across the US, Middle East and APAC.
How to conduct a team move internationally
- In this session we will present a case study in which a company looks to hire a close-knit team which straddles the UK, French and Italian market.
- Team moves are notoriously complex to conduct effectively, both legally and from the standpoint of the practical logistics. Industry and cultural norms are often as important as legal considerations.
- We will present a few wrong tracks to indicate where you could slip up and then some better methods which have a better chance of standing up in court, or even better avoiding litigation at all.
- Nick Dent will chair the session along with Emran Chowdhury and Giorgio Manca, from our Employment teams in France and Italy.
Coming soon: UK and cross-border restrictive covenant litigation
In the wake of the pandemic and with the cost of living rising, labour supply has presented a challenge for employers. Whilst reward and flexibility are central to attracting and retaining talent, employers also need to minimise risk by ensuring their business is protected should a key employee resign. Restrictive covenants play an important role here.
- We will run this session as a case study – the reverse view of our previous webinar – in which a company is subjected to a concerted raid across the UK, Germany and Spain and is determined to litigate to protect its business interests.
- We will start by giving an outline of the process and tactical considerations in the UK to take legal action to enforce restrictive covenants, from injunction through to speedy trial and beyond.
- Finally we will overlay the different considerations and additional complexities involved in pursuing the same action at the same time in Germany and Spain, from co-ordinating to the minute the first initiation of proceedings to the different enforcement regimes, timelines and potential outcomes achievable.
