Can I move to a company founded by former employee of my former company client?
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Can I move to a company founded by former employee of my former company client?
I work for a consulting company. As a consultant I worked for one of our clients. Some time ago a manager from that company left the job to move to a company co-founded by him but he was the one whose signature is present in the consulting contract between our companies. Several months after that employee made a job offer to me. My employment agreement has a phrase about non-soliciting of employment from my company’s
Asked on July 26, 2018 under Employment Labor Law, Illinois
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 6 years ago | Contributor
If the company this former manager had worked for was an LLC or corporation, then HE was not your client: the client was the LLC or corporation, which is its own legal entity or person. That he signed as the manager is irrelevant: he did that as an employee or representative of the LLC or corporation, but that does not make *him* the client. The law does not make LLC/corporation employees liable or responsible for the LLC/corporation's obligations and agreements.
If the company had been a general partnership and he was one of the partners, then he would have been your company's client and you could not work for him: in partnership, the partners are the company.
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