The asset that carries the enterprise can walk out the door. We bring and defend misappropriation claims under the DTSA and state law, seek emergency injunctive relief, and build the protection programs that make a secret defensible before it is ever taken.
Every confidentiality agreement signed or updated since May 2016 must carry the Defend Trade Secrets Act's whistleblower-immunity notice. An employer that omitted it can still sue the engineer who walked off with the source code, but it cannot recover exemplary damages or attorney's fees, the first thing opposing counsel checks and the last thing most forms were updated for.
The federal claim runs three years from discovery; the Illinois Trade Secrets Act allows five. A restraining order entered without notice lapses after fourteen days unless extended, and a federal injunction cannot keep a former employee out of a job on the strength of knowledge alone; threatened use must be shown. Since 2021 the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act no longer reaches an insider who misuses data within his access, so the case is won on the trade secret claim or not at all.
We act for the owner whose edge has left the building and for the company accused of carrying it. The discipline is the same on either side: image the devices before anyone is tipped, define the secret with particularity, and keep the litigation from publishing it.
Prosecuting and defending trade secret misappropriation claims under the Defend Trade Secrets Act and state Uniform Trade Secrets Act statutes, which turn on two questions: does the information qualify, and was it taken or used without authorization.
Representation when an employee, partner, or counterparty leaves with confidential information, often alongside non-disclosure and restrictive-covenant agreements. This is the most common source of trade secret litigation.
Temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions to stop a secret from being used or disclosed while a case proceeds. In these matters that relief often counts for more than the eventual judgment.
Coordinating digital-forensic analysis and discipline around discovery to identify what was taken and how, while protecting the secret itself from disclosure through protective orders and sealed filings.
Building and documenting the reasonable measures the law requires, including confidentiality and NDA agreements, onboarding and exit protocols, access controls, and clear policies, so a secret is defensible before any dispute arises.
Negotiated resolution, damages and disgorgement strategy, and coordination with locally admitted counsel where information has crossed borders into London, Dubai, or other jurisdictions in our partner network.
The statute protects only information its owner took reasonable measures to keep secret, and courts test that on the record: who had access and whether they needed it, which agreements covered them, and what the exit interview recorded. A confidentiality stamp is evidence of effort, not a substitute for it.
A restraining order without notice needs a sworn declaration of specific facts showing immediate and irreparable injury, and a certification of the efforts made to warn the other side. It lapses after fourteen days unless extended, the court will set a bond, and expedited discovery rides along. The first filing is built for that hearing.
USB logs, cloud-sync records and forwards to a personal address in the month before a resignation are where most cases are found, so the departing laptop is imaged, not reissued. In Illinois the non-compete is void if the employee earned $75,000 or less or had under fourteen days to review it.
The federal act gives three years from discovery, doubles damages for a willful and malicious taking, and brings nationwide subpoena service. The Illinois act gives five years and has recognized since 1995 that a departing executive's disclosure can be inevitable, a theory the federal injunction provision excludes. Most complaints plead both; the forum is chosen.
The first defense motion demands that the plaintiff identify the secret with particularity before discovery opens; a claim to all of the company's business information does not survive it. Independent development and reverse engineering are lawful by statute, a published patent or public website is nobody's secret, and a bad-faith claim shifts the defendant's fees.
The federal act bars a court from ordering disclosure of trade secret material until the owner has argued under seal against it. Protective orders run in two tiers, the most sensitive material limited to outside counsel, and the identification of the secret is filed under seal so the complaint does not publish what it protects.
A resignation letter, a download log, a competitor's press release. The matter opens with forensic imaging of devices and accounts, litigation holds, and a hard inventory of what left. We establish what was taken, when, and by whom before anyone is tipped that we are looking.
Before a court will restrain anyone, the owner must say what the secret is with particularity, and without giving it away. We frame the trade secret identification, marshal the NDAs, access controls, and exit protocols that prove reasonable measures, and choose the forum: DTSA in federal court, the state UTSA, or both.
The TRO and preliminary-injunction hearing is a trial compressed into weeks. Declarations, forensic exhibits, and expedited discovery are built for one showing, irreparable harm, while protective orders and sealed filings keep the litigation from publishing the very secret it protects.
The matter resolves by negotiated undertakings, damages and disgorgement, or a permanent injunction, and then the work turns inward. Everything the case exposed about how the information escaped is rebuilt into the protection program, so the next departure finds the vault already locked.
Once a secret spreads, no judgment can make it secret again, so we litigate for the first hours rather than the verdict.
It is a claim that information deriving value from secrecy, and kept secret by reasonable measures, was acquired by improper means or used or disclosed without consent. Since May 2016 the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act has supplied a civil claim in federal court for any secret used in interstate commerce, alongside the state statutes modeled on the Uniform Trade Secrets Act that nearly every state has adopted, New York being the notable holdout. The remedies are an injunction, damages measured by the owner's loss or the taker's gain or a reasonable royalty, and, for willful and malicious conduct, double damages and fees.
A trade secret is information that derives independent economic value from not being generally known and that the owner has taken reasonable steps to keep secret. The second part matters as much as the first. If a company did not protect the information with confidentiality agreements, access controls, and clear policies, a court may decide it was never a trade secret at all. Establishing both the value and the protection is the foundation of any case.
The Defend Trade Secrets Act is a federal statute that creates a private right of action and opens the door to federal court, including an extraordinary civil seizure remedy in narrow circumstances. The Uniform Trade Secrets Act has been adopted, with variations, by most states and governs claims under state law. The two often overlap, and many matters are pleaded under both; we assess which forum and which statute give the client the strongest position early in the case.
Preserve first. The laptop and phone are forensically imaged before IT wipes them for the next hire, and the access, USB and cloud-sync logs for the final month are pulled and locked. A preservation letter goes to the former employee and to the new employer the same day, which also puts the new employer on notice for any later claim. Counsel then reads the agreements for what they actually contain, starting with the federal whistleblower notice that preserves exemplary damages and fees and, in Illinois, the earnings floor and review period without which a non-compete is void. If the evidence supports it, a restraining order is sought within days on sworn declarations, and the court will set a bond.
By making the plaintiff say what the secret is. A motion for identification with reasonable particularity, before discovery, forces a claim to the company's entire know-how down to a list that can be tested, and most of what survives then meets the statutory defenses: independent development and reverse engineering are lawful, material in a published patent or a marketing deck or a public LinkedIn profile is nobody's secret, and information the plaintiff never guarded was never protected. For the hiring company we also build the record going forward, with a written certification from the new hire, a clean device, and a wall around the role, because a claim brought in bad faith shifts fees to the plaintiff and the record is how that is shown.
Start with the paper. Every agreement that governs confidential information and was signed or updated after May 2016 carries the Defend Trade Secrets Act's immunity notice, or the company has forfeited exemplary damages and fees against that signatory. Access is granted on need and logged, vendors sign before they see anything, and the exit protocol includes a return certification and a reminder letter that is kept. For Illinois non-competes, the earnings threshold, the written advice to consult counsel and the fourteen-day review period are met or the covenant is void. Once a year the company writes down what it regards as secret and who may see it, so that when identification with particularity is demanded the answer already exists.
Enforcement and defense of intellectual-property rights and proprietary information, the broader practice in which trade secret protection most often sits.
Explore →Trial advocacy for complex business disputes and contract breaches in state and federal court, carried from early case assessment through judgment and appeal.
Explore →Employer-side representation in employment disputes and restrictive-covenant matters, the workforce framework behind most departing-employee claims.
Explore →Arbitration, mediation, and other alternative dispute resolution to resolve conflicts efficiently while preserving valuable business relationships.
Explore →Reviewed by Jonathan D. Herpy, Sr., Senior Partner · Last updated October 2026 · Educational overview · Not legal advice
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