LCBF succeeded in dismissing all claims against its client in an arbitration proceeding brought by the client’s former employer, alleging violations of the non-compete, non-interference and non-disparagement provisions of an employment contract.
Among its principal defenses, LCBF successfully argued that the bulk of claimant’s evidence pertained to irrelevant, pre-termination conduct, which would not provide a basis for any determination that the client had violated the contract. LCBF also argued that the claimant failed to provide any “comparator” evidence that would have established that the level of customer attrition following our client’s termination was in anyway higher than normal or unusual in nature. Most significantly, the Arbitrator agreed with LCBF that the non-compete provision was unenforceable on its face due to its overbreadth as it lacked any geographic limitation. The Arbitrator further declined to reform the non-compete clause given the employer’s failure to provide any non-speculative evidence of client-poaching.
Ultimately, the Arbitrator agreed that there was no merit to the employer’s claims and dismissed the proceeding in its entirely. The Arbitration proceeding was successfully defended by Daniel S. Moretti and Matthew Hughes.