Category Archives: Confidential Information

Now in Hackers’ Sights, Law Firms Must Step Up Protection of Client Confidences

Posted on April 12, 2016 by Joe Ahmad

As the Panama Papers made brutally obvious, law firms contain vast amounts of confidential information about clients. Some of that information might not reflect positively on those clients (such as huge offshore accounts), but other information could help make others rich.

At least, that was the apparent intention when law enforcement came upon a “criminal-seeks-hacker” posting on the “dark web.” According to an alert sent to American Bar Association members by the FBI’s Cyber Division, the criminal was looking for a hacker to break into the networks of international law firms as part of an insider trading scheme. Continue reading →

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You Really Should Read the Treasury Department’s Report on Non-Competes

Posted on April 8, 2016 by Joe Ahmad

Anybody concerned with non-competes – that is any potential employer or employee, so pretty much all of us – should settle in with a nice sandwich and the beverage of their choice and read the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Economic Policy’s recent report, “Non-compete Contracts: Economic Effects and Policy Implications.” Continue reading →

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How to Spot a Possible In-House Trade Secret Thief

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Joe Ahmad

My main complaint with how trade secret theft is talked about is the notion that the chief culprits are hackers from China or somewhere similarly opaque. In reality, most trade secret thieves are homegrown, and the tools of the trade are fairly low-tech. Continue reading →

Posted in Complaints Against Executives, Confidential Information, Legal, Trade Secrets | Tagged | 1 Comment

Ex parte civil seizure is overkill in trade secret lawsuits

Posted on February 25, 2016 by Joe Ahmad

Congress is so polarized right now that it’s tempting to applaud anything that has bipartisan support. After all, if all those people who can’t stand each other can unite over something, it should be safe to assume that whatever brought them together has to be worth supporting, right?

In the case of the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016, I may have to be the skunk in the garden party. Of course, the intent of the act is a sound one: providing a federal civil cause of action for the theft of trade secrets and creating a uniform standard nationwide for protecting and enforcing those secrets. But one of the remedies – ex parte seizure of allegedly stolen assets – gives me pause. Continue reading →

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Law360 Kerfuffle Adds to Noncompetes Bonfire

Posted on February 8, 2016 by Joe Ahmad

Every few months, a story comes along that reignites the “noncompetes are evil” fervor. Right now, the story du jour is that of Stephanie Russell-Kraft, a freelance reporter who formerly wrote for the legal newswire Law360. She left Law360 – her first job out of college – to take a job at competitor Thomson Reuters Corp. Continue reading →

Posted in Confidential Information, Executive contracts, Legal, Litigation, Non-Competes, Trade Secrets | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Another Plug for Keeping Secrets Secret

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Joe Ahmad

Just a quick post to follow up on the item I wrote back in June about the hack into the Houston Astros’ Ground Control database by someone within the St. Louis Cardinals’ front office.

We now know the culprit was Chris Correa, a former Cardinals scouting director who recently pled guilty to five counts of accessing Astros computers without authorization from 2013-14. Correa was able to get into the Astros’ database because he had the password of a former Cardinals’ employee who had joined the Astros. Continue reading →

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SCOTX Asked to Keep a Few Too Many Secrets

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Joe Ahmad

Yesterday, the Texas Supreme Court heard an important case involving the recently enacted Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act (TUTSA), and it could profoundly impact how trade secret cases are litigated in Texas. This case concerns whether a plaintiff can banish … Continue reading →

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What Execs Can Learn from the Clinton Email Scandal

Posted on August 27, 2015 by Joe Ahmad

It’s always a good time to learn from the misfortunes/bad judgment of others, and the Hillary Clinton email controversy seems as good an opportunity to do that as any.
Continue reading →

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More on the Astros/Cardinals Hacking Scandal

Posted on June 24, 2015 by Joe Ahmad

I went on KTRK, Houston’s ABC affiliate, last weekend to discuss the Houston Astros/St. Louis Cardinals hacking scandal. You can check out the video here.

Posted in Confidential Information, Non-Competes, Trade Secrets, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Cardinal/Astros Hack: Earth-Shaking in Baseball, Business as Usual in the C-Suite

Posted on June 23, 2015 by Joe Ahmad

The recent hack into the Houston Astros’ Ground Control database may be unprecedented in sports, but it has echoes of countless trade secret theft cases in the business world. And even if the culprit turns out to be just one or two “rogue elements” within the Cardinals’ front office, it also offers lessons to high-level executives who change jobs. Continue reading →

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