Recently, we were able to secure a massive reduction in duration of the nocompete and nonsolicit provisions contained in the employment agreement of our sales executive client. Granted, it did require filing an action in federal court for a declaratory judgment that his restrictive covenant was, under the particular factual circumstances, unenforceable as a matter of New York law, and our client performing remarkably well on the witness stand at a preliminary injunction hearing before his former employer approached us with an offer to resolve the case.
But, as one of my old bosses who was a truly talented trial lawyer used to say, "The best way to settle a case is to be ready to see it all the way through to a verdict." And in this case, I credit opposing counsel for recognizing that given the sterling performance of our client on the stand, there was a strong possibility that his client would have walked away with a ruling that our client's restrictive covenant was inherently unenforceable as a matter of law in that particular industry, which could have had a domino effect on the restrictive covenants they had their other salespeople sign as a condition of their employment.
And, we are happy to report, our client was absolutely thrilled with the result.
