Epstein Becker Green
Firm overview:
From more than 20 offices across the US, industry-focused firm Epstein Becker Green (EBG) provides legal services across healthcare and life sciences; employment, labour and workforce management; and litigation and business disputes.
The firm’s Trade Secrets & Employee Mobility practice group handles the full spectrum of complex issues surrounding trade secrets, and clients trust EBG to “weigh in on all-important hires and dismissals”.
EBG’s seasoned litigators have experience across federal and state courts, and the firm says its long experience in handling trade secrets matters has made it sensitive to the “raw feelings” that sometimes accompany important hiring or firing situations.
The firm’s Spilling Secrets podcast series covers everything from the strategic use of noncompete agreements across various sports to the future of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) non-compete ban—as well as a Harry Potter special edition on Halloween.
It provides further thought leadership through a blog on trade secrets and employee mobility developments, as well as a 50-state Noncompete Survey that includes nuances specific to the healthcare industry.
Team overview:
Notable achievements by EBG’s team include persuading the New Jersey Supreme Court that noncompete agreements for physicians were valid, enforceable, and consistent with, rather than contrary to, public policy, in a case involving an employer-hospital client. The ruling was followed in at least five other states.
Peers count Erik Weibust as an “extremely experienced and strategic trade secrets/employee mobility litigator”. One high-profile peer describes him as “a tremendous, brilliant lawyer”. When necessary, Erik provides aggressive representation for his clients in litigation, where he has won substantial victories in court and at the negotiating table, including broad-reaching injunctive relief and multimillion-dollar payouts, in trade secret misappropriation, unfair competition, and breach of restrictive covenant cases.
Ranked as a Notable individual in the WIPR Global Trade Secrets Rankings 2024, Weibust enters these rankings in the Recommended category.
David Clark is relied on by businesses of all sizes to represent them in complex business and employment-related disputes before the courts and arbitration tribunals. He has particular expertise in handling matters involving the movement of people and information between different employers.
Another key member of the trade secrets practice, Peter Steinmeyer frequently writes and speaks about employment and workforce mobility issues. His successes for clients include defeating efforts to prevent three individuals from assuming new positions at a competing oil industry company; and securing a default judgment plus $300,000 in attorney’s fees for a manufacturing industry client.
Key matters:
- Ryan et al v Federal Trade Commission, US District Court for the Northern District of Texas
EBG represented a coalition of organisations in its filing of an amicus brief in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Ryan et al v Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Filed on behalf of 11 of the country’s largest trade organisations, the amicus brief challenged the FTC’s controversial rule banning non-competes on the grounds it was arbitrary and capricious. US District Judge Ada Brown agreed that the rule was “unreasonably broad without a reasonable explanation” and issued an injunction against it in August.
