Business Protection

From directors or senior employees breaching restrictive covenants to set up in competition, through to the misuse of confidential information, customer poaching, data breaches, cyber-attacks, and reputational crises – the risks to your business are wide-ranging, interconnected, and potentially financially devastating. 

Why speed matters

Prevention will always be better than cure but the days and even hours after discovering business critical threats are vital. Urgent protection through the courts may not be available if there has been undue delay and valuable relationships can be lost forever if unlawful conduct is left unchecked. Taking swift, strategic action is essential.  

Our expertise 

Ashfords’ team of litigation specialists have a breadth and depth of experience which ensures that we can mobilise quickly to advise and take action to prevent, stem and remedy unlawful threats to your business. We regularly help clients:

• Enforce restraint of trade and restrictive covenant clauses.
• Stop the misuse of confidential information and trade secrets.
• Respond to data breaches, cyber-attacks and ransom demands.
• Manage and contain reputation crises. 

We have a proven track record of obtaining interim injunctions, halting unlawful conduct in its tracks. Taking swift action on a foundation of solid evidence are key factors in our success. We work with specialist barristers at an early stage to ensure the matter comes to court, sometimes in a matter of weeks, sometimes even days. 

Often securing an early success with an interim injunction provides the leverage needed to resolve the entire dispute at a very early stage, avoiding drawn out litigation and disruption to the management of your business. 

Litigation is not always necessary or the best commercial option available. We are adept at utilising the pre-litigation court rules robustly and authoritatively to disrupt and halt unlawful competition and business threats before they have taken hold. Where the formal legal route is (or becomes) essential, we pursue it vigorously and with direction. Whether court action is required or not, we can provide you with a roadmap to achieve a commercially driven solution. 

Our experience

• Acting for a leading software company when a business analyst resigned after secretly downloading an entire suite of confidential documents to assist a competitor in his new job. We obtained an order from the court forcing the former employee to deliver up confidential information, provide a sworn statement detailing his wrongdoing and obtaining a forensic imaging order of the defendant’s laptop. 
• Securing undertakings to the court from a business owner who sold his company and then set up a competing business targeting our client’s largest customer. The defendant tried to hide his post-sale breaches but failed to adequately cover his tracks.  
• Pursuing interim injunctions against a former owner who sold an online sales platform, whilst secretly retaining access and control, and unlawfully took the website offline to provide him leverage following a dispute. The dispute settled at mediation with significant compensation achieved and complete handover of control of the website and all unlawfully retained confidential information.
• Acting for franchisor in the professional services sector preventing former franchisee setting up in competition following termination of the franchise agreement. 
• Dealing with proceedings in the High Court in relation to a financial advisory business following migration of customers following departure of advisors from a national firm of advisors. 
• Advising international software developer when its customer granted unlawful access to protected confidential information to migration of services to a competitor.   

What can we do for you?      

We have successfully represented clients across a variety of sectors including tech, franchising, healthcare, finance and many more to secure protection, pursue financial damages and recover costs against parties who have sought to get an unlawful head start and who pose a threat to your business. 

Whether you are looking to proactively protect your business through enforceable restrictive covenants and confidentiality measures or if you need urgent legal advice to stop a threat in its tracks, our specialist business protection lawyers are ready to advise and where necessary to quickly and decisively help you confront those threats as they arise.