Tom Carnes is regularly engaged in the context of business "divorce," disputes
between employers and their former employers and between former business partners.
These cases may involve issues of trade secret misappropriation and covenants not
to compete, whether in the employment context or in the context of the sale of a
business.
A common thread in many of these cases is that there are often actually two trials
— an almost immediate trial in the form of a temporary injunction hearing and,
subsequently, a final trial. Lawyers working in this area must be adept at preparing
a case for trial on a short time fuse, generally twenty days or less, as the cases
are often either won or lost at the temporary injunction hearing. It is, therefore,
vitally important to select the right attorney or firm at the outset, while there
is still time to gain the upper hand.
Tom has been litigating trade secret and non-compete cases, in many different context
and arenas, since 1997. He has litigated dozens of these cases at the temporary
injunction phase, and taken several through trial. In short, a client, whether Plaintiff
or Defendant, would be hard pressed to find a more experienced, more adept, team
to assist in either prosecuting or defending against allegations of trade secret
misappropriation or advancing or opposing a non-compete agreement, or in undertaking
the client's representation in similar matters involving business "divorce."
Representative Engagements:
- Tom Carnes successfully defended three former employees whose computers
actually contained their employer’s trade secrets in a two-week trial in District
Court in Harris County, Texas, resulting in a verdict of only $70,000, in a case
in which the Plaintiff’s claimed damages were $3.5 million.
- Tom Carnes participated on a team that achieved a defense verdict for the inventor
in a case between business owners over who owned the technology at the core of a
software company.
- Tom Carnes participated in nationwide litigation lasting three years between three
manufacturers of cardiac devices, resulting in an agreed three-way settlement agreement.
- Tom Carnes participated on a team that achieved the successful defense of an engineering
executive of an offshore seismic company against claims of misappropriation of trade
secrets, resulting in a settlement in which no damages were paid and the employee
was allowed to remain with his new employer, which was a competitor of his old employer.
- Tom Carnes participated on a team which successfully enjoined, by agreement just
prior to trial, two medical device salesmen from competing with their former employer
in violation of their covenants not to compete and confidentiality agreements.