Many Australian businesses use contractual restraints of trade to protect confidential information and customer relationships. In this update we answer frequently asked questions about the future of restraints of trade in Australia, and consider options available to companies in the event that some types of restraints are no longer available.

Are restraints of trade still

Whether there will be a “Great Resignation” in Australia has been fiercely debated for weeks. But whatever the different viewpoints, stabilisation, recovery, and growth in 2022 will be critical for most businesses. Timing is everything – the need for growth coincides with widespread fatigue and burnout among the workforce, ongoing uncertainty associated with the new

On 12 December 2013 Seyfarth Shaw announced our Australian offices were officially open for business. Today marks five years since those doors opened.

What better way to reflect than to ask ourselves, what have been the biggest changes in our specialist areas of law over those five years?

“It has become increasingly difficult to make

An enforceable restraint of trade can be a key business asset. Some might think about it as an insurance policy. The capacity to preserve customer connections, protect confidential information and discourage key executives from setting up their own business or moving to a competitor can be critical to information rich businesses operating in a competitive

Recently a number of stoushes about the enforcement of post-employment restraints of trade – including one that captivated the legal industry for many months last year – have played out publicly.

Their high profile nature means it is timely for big business to re-evaluate their restraints of trade to make sure they are effective –

Drafting and enforcing post-employment restraints has a lot in common with good medicine.

It is necessary to prescribe only the “minimum effective dose” – the amount necessary to produce the desired outcome with minimum side effects. Draft a post-employment restraint too narrowly, and it provides no remedy. Draft a restraint too broadly, and toxicity sets in – it won’t be enforceable.
Continue Reading Prescribing the “minimum effective dose”

Effective restraints of trade protect businesses which rely heavily on human capital from damage that sometimes can’t be undone. These restraints – usually sitting in an employment contract – can be a key business asset.

Others might think about it as an insurance policy. The capacity to preserve customer connections, protect confidential information and discourage key executives from setting up their own business or moving to a competitor can be critical to information rich businesses operating in a competitive market. As we pointed out in our previous blog piece on post-employment protections The difference between winning and losing restraint litigation is often good housekeeping, ensuring the currency of your restraint provisions is an important exercise in risk management.
Continue Reading You get to write the script for this story…

When a key employee subject to an employment restraint leaves a business to join a competitor, fast decisions need to be made to protect client goodwill or guard against misuse of confidential information.

The more leverage an employer has against the former employee and his or her new employer, the better the prospects of negotiating a sensible solution quickly or, failing that, taking successful legal action.
Continue Reading Leveraging employment restraints to protect business assets