Employee Raiding, Poaching & Restrictive Covenants

Our data analytics colleagues assist in employee raiding matters by examining communication patterns and highlighting the trends in exchanges between clients’ former employees and competitors to uncover evidence of unauthorized activities. Using advanced forensic analytic techniques, we have revealed anomalies and connections that support the clients legal teams in building a strong case for potential breaches of contractual agreements. 

CRA’s economists, forensic accountants, investigative research analysts, and data analytics specialists analyze macro- and microeconomic market conditions that impact historic and forecasted market, firm, and individual performance; employee tenure and turnover; compensation determinants; and, assuming liability, quantify the economic damages attributable to the relevant causes of action. When the theft of trade secrets and other intangible assets are involved, clients benefit from CRA’s unparalleled expertise in IP valuation, licensing, and economic damages analysis in a broad range of industries. 

CRA’s digital forensics and forensic accounting teams deliver integrated, defensible analyses to support internal investigations, litigation, and enforcement of contractual obligations. Our experts leverage advanced e-discovery tools to identify and preserve critical digital evidence across devices, emails, cloud platforms, and system logs. Licensed investigators complement these efforts with public records research to uncover prior misconduct, hidden affiliations, and other key insights. Our forensic accountants conduct analysis of financial transactions and expense reports, cross-referencing them with calendar entries, emails, and other digital records to detect inconsistencies and anomalies.

By combining forensic accounting with advanced digital forensics and analytics, we help clients trace fund flows, identify misuse patterns, and contextualize findings. Together, our teams specialize in investigating and refuting claims involving unauthorized data transfers, breaches of non-solicitation agreements, employee poaching, and misappropriation of trade secrets.

Our labor and employment team can assist in employee raiding matters by defining the typical labor market conditions faced by the client regarding hiring, turnover, and vacancy rates, both historically within the firm and in the broader geographic and industry markets. This can help establish a baseline for determining how typical or atypical a particular instance of employee raiding is within the scope of the regular operations of the business and also helps determine a reasonable timeline to return to pre-raid employment levels. 

Our investigative professionals regularly aid counsel by leveraging social media analytics tools to help prove a client’s allegations that its competitor orchestrated premeditated raids of its sales teams.  We have uncovered relationships between individuals based on their social media connections, identified, and preserved departure posts made by employees moving from one firm to another before officially resigning from their current employer, and captured blatant solicitation attempts by competitors posted on social media.