SimplyHR | Employment & Labor Blog 

As many employers continue to deal with the prospect of a more remote workforce moving forward, what are the best practices related to restrictive covenants, information privacy, employee onboarding, and protecting trade secrets? Greensfelder attorneys Jim Ferrick, Jill Luft and Chris Pickett recently presented “Restrictive Covenants and Trade Secret Considerations for a Remote Workforce” for the St. Louis chapter of the Association for Corporate Counsel, covering steps to protect confidential business information. Here are nine key takeaways from their discussion.

On  April 27, 2016, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow companies to go straight to federal court to fight trade-secret theft by their employees. Currently, when a company’s trade secrets are stolen, the only available remedies are to file a private civil action in state court or to convince the Justice Department to bring a criminal case.

Buyer beware as the asset protection afforded by non-disclosure and non-solicitation agreements signed by prospective purchasers may not survive the sale. This issue was addressed in a recent federal decision in Illinois offering some cautionary reminders for business buyers. In this case, Keywell LLC (“Keywell”) sought to sell its assets. Croniment Holdings, Inc. (“Croniment”), a bidder for Keywell’s assets, signed a non-disclosure agreement (the “NDA”) which prohibited Croniment from disclosing Keywell confidential information and prohibited Croniment from hiring any of Keywell’s employees with whom Croniment came into contact during negotiations. Keywell and Croniment entered into an asset purchase agreement by which Croniment would serve as the stalking horse bid for Keywell’s assets in bankruptcy.