A few months ago, I filed a motion for a TRO on behalf of a
client. I thought I had a pretty rock-solid case. My client had
discovered that in the weeks and months leading up to the
resignation of a former employee, the employee had created a
detailed spreadsheet containing proprietary customer data. After
printing the spreadsheet, instead of deleting it, the employee
saved over it with innocuous content to cover his tracks. As
if that were not enough, the employee also logged into multiple
proprietary databases and pressed the print screen button over 400
times to capture images of proprietary data. When my client
confronted the employee about his actions, his story quickly fell
apart and he repeatedly told my client to "talk to my
lawyer." My client asked the employee directly,
"Are you going to solicit our customers in violation of your
nonsolicitation agreement?" The
employee refused to answer and instead repeated his familiar
refrain, "Talk to my lawyer."
