Movers and takers: do not let secrets walk out the door

Key players regularly move around, whether to further careers, branch out or set up a business in parallel to their former employer. In this situation, the obvious question is how can aesthetic clinics protect their confidential information and prevent it from walking out the door with a departing employee?

There are three general categories of confidential information: general skills and knowledge; confidential information (such as patient lists, financial information and marketing strategies); and trade secrets, which include commercially valuable secrets that give an owner a competitive advantage.

During employment, employees have an implied duty to keep all this information confidential. However, once they have left, the picture is different, and employers will be more at risk of misuse of their confidential information and data. Although employees are still subject to an implied duty to keep trade secrets confidential, without specific and robust post-termination confidentiality terms in the employment contract, wider valuable information is at risk of being passed to a competitor.