Littler Mendelson
Firm overview:
Littler Mendelson is the largest law practice in the world exclusively focused on representing management in employment, employee benefit and labour law matters. The firm has represented thousands of employers, both as defendants and plaintiffs, in unfair competition and trade secret matters across the US. Its expertise in employee mobility means it handles “a large volume of trade secret restrictive covenant matters”, a peer in the trade secrets legal industry says, adding that “we’ve had a lot of litigation against them over the years”.
A client says that the Littler team “has been my go-to advisors for restrictive covenant and labour and employment counselling and litigation. In particular, immediately after commencing work for us, the team secured major victories in multiple high-profile restrictive covenant cases involving some of our fiercest competitors.”
The firm’s offering includes counselling on preventative measures and trade secrets audits; coordinating multi-jurisdictional litigation; and a quick response when time-sensitive matters arise. A work highlight is thwarting the planned defection of a C-suite executive to a client’s direct competitor, after demonstrating that he had misappropriated trade secrets and other proprietary information.
Team overview:
Melissa McDonagh co-chairs the firm’s Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets Practice Group. She advises business on issues impacting the entire employment cycle, and routinely represents employers around the US in disputes involving noncompete, nonsolicit, trade secret and other unfair competition claims.
Key matters:
- Aon v Howden et al
Littler Mendelson represents insurance giant Aon in a lawsuit against UK-founded insurance intermediary Howden. The suit alleges that Howden conspired with a former Aon managing director to solicit a group of colleagues to “bolster Howden’s New York operations”, and misappropriated trade secrets and confidential information concerning competitor personnel and clients.
Clients:
Aon
