For employees who possess confidential business information, the threat of a preliminary injunction can make changing jobs a high-risk proposition. To prevent, or at least forestall, the loss of confidential information to the competition, employers occasionally seek preliminary injunctions, regarded as “one of the most drastic tools in the arsenal of judicial remedies,”1 to enjoin departing employees from working for competitors. The decision whether to grant such relief generally turns on resolution of the tension between protecting proprietary business information on the one hand, and the strong public policy against limiting competition and an individual’s ability to work on the other.
As a number of recent decisions from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York illustrate, employers and employees alike can take steps before and during litigation that may influence how the balance between these competing interests will be struck.
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