Articles By Topic
By Topic: Hedge Fund Employment Contracts
-
From Vol. 2 No.28 (Jul. 16, 2009)
Citadel Investment Group Sues Former Employees Alleging Violations of Non-Disclosure, Non-Solicitation and Non-Compete Agreements
On July 9, 2009, Citadel Investment Group (Citadel) filed a lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois against three of its former employees – Mikhail Malyshev, Jace Kohlmeier and Matthew Hinerfeld – and Teza Technologies LLC, a corporation founded by those three former employees. Citadel’s complaint alleges that the individual defendants violated non-disclosure, non-solicitation and non-complete covenants in their employment agreements with Citadel, as well as the Illinois Trade Secrets Act, by misappropriating trade secrets and other confidential data relating to Citadel’s high frequency trading technology. We describe the factual and legal allegations in the complaint.
Read Full Article … -
From Vol. 1 No.7 (Apr. 15, 2008)
Hedge Fund Manager Cannot Prove Breach of Contract by Ex-employee Without Proof of Written Contract
- Original, expired written employment agreement included disclosure restrictions.
- Subsequent unsigned drafts included non-compete and confidentiality clauses, but employer failed to produce a signed copy.
- Employer alleged employee orally and repeatedly renewed contract.
- After receiving $450,000 alleged “advance,” employee resigned and began working for competing fund management firm, but employee asserted payment was for work already performed.
- Employer sued for fraud, breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of confidentiality.
- Affidavit of existence of lost executed contract failed to satisfy statute of frauds.
- Employee asserted his employment was “at-will” and thus he was not bound by non-compete clause.
- Employer failed to prove enforceable written employment contract and so failed to raise any genuine issue of material fact.