Dallas Non Compete Attorney
The Dallas non-compete and trade secret attorneys at Roquemore Skierski PLLC enforce and defend restrictive covenants and pursue trade secret misappropriation for companies across Dallas, Collin, Denton, and Tarrant Counties. When a key employee leaves for a competitor, the question is rarely just whether a non-compete will hold; it is also what the employee took with them when they left, and whether the customer lists, pricing, and processes that make your business competitive are already in a rival’s hands. Both disputes turn on speed and on the precise language of the agreements, and both sit inside our core business litigation practice.
How Texas Treats Non-Compete Agreements
Texas will enforce a non-compete agreement, but only within limits the statute sets. Under the Texas Covenants Not to Compete Act, Sections 15.50 through 15.52 of the Texas Business and Commerce Code, a covenant not to compete will be enforceable if it is ancillary to an otherwise enforceable agreement and contains limitations as to time, geographic area, and scope of activity that are reasonable and do not impose a greater restraint than necessary to protect the business’s goodwill or other legitimate interest. That reasonableness requirement is where most of these disputes will be decided.
A covenant that is overbroad will not simply be struck down. The statute directs a court to reform an unreasonable covenant to the extent necessary and enforce it as reformed, which changes the strategy for both sides: an employer will not lose everything for asking too much, and an employee cannot assume a broadly written covenant is unenforceable. The recurring disputes are over the breadth of the geographic restriction, the length of the term, the definition of the prohibited activity, and whether the covenant was supported by the consideration the statute requires.
How Texas Protects Trade Secrets
A trade secret claim will often reach further than a non-compete, because it does not depend on the employee having signed anything. Under the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act, Chapter 134A of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, information will qualify for protection when it derives independent economic value from not being generally known and the owner has taken reasonable measures to keep it secret. Where those two elements are met, the taking or use of that information will be actionable as misappropriation whether or not a contract was ever in place.
Trade secret protection will cover a wide range of business information: customer and prospect lists, pricing and margin data, manufacturing processes and formulas, source code, and strategic plans. When misappropriation is threatened or underway, a court will be able to enjoin the use or disclosure, and the remedies under the statute will include damages for actual loss and unjust enrichment, and in willful and malicious cases, exemplary damages and attorney’s fees. A parallel federal claim will often be available under the Defend Trade Secrets Act.
When Non-Compete and Trade Secret Claims Become Combined
A departing-employee dispute will usually raise both bodies of law at once, and the strongest cases will use them in combination. A non-compete will restrain where the former employee can work; a trade secret claim will restrain what they can use and disclose regardless of where they land. The matters our Dallas non-compete and trade secret lawyers handle include:
- Enforcing non-compete and non-solicitation covenants against departing employees and the competitors who hire them
- Defending employees and new employers against covenants that are overbroad, unsupported by consideration, or unreasonable under Sections 15.50 through 15.52
- Trade secret misappropriation claims under the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act and the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act
- Emergency injunctive relief to stop the use or disclosure of trade secrets before the harm becomes permanent
- Claims involving the theft of customer lists, pricing, formulas, source code, and confidential processes
- Related breach of fiduciary duty and breach of confidentiality claims against former employees and partners
How Non-Compete and Trade Secret Cases Are Won in Dallas
A non-compete or trade secret case will usually be decided in its first weeks, not at trial. When information is walking out the door, we will move for a temporary restraining order and temporary injunction under Texas Rules of Civil Procedure 680 through 689 to freeze the conduct while the case is built, because a trade secret that spreads cannot be made secret again. On the other side, when a company overreaches with a covenant it cannot support, an early and well-documented defense will often end the matter before it becomes expensive.
Either way, the record will decide the case: the language of the agreement, the consideration behind it, the measures the company took to keep its information secret, and the forensic evidence of what the departing employee accessed and took. The party that moves first with the facts in order will usually control the outcome.
Why Dallas Businesses Choose Our Non-Compete and Trade Secret Lawyers
These disputes reward litigators who move fast and know the procedure. Our firm brings decades of Texas courtroom experience to covenant enforcement and trade secret protection, and the same attorneys who handle these cases will handle the fiduciary duty, unfair competition, and injunction claims that travel with them. We will appear in the district courts of Dallas, Collin, Denton, and Tarrant Counties and in the Texas federal courts, for privately held companies and owner-operators across technology, professional services, manufacturing, healthcare, and logistics. Matters inside our practice areas will stay with us and will not be referred out.
Talk With a Dallas Non-Compete and Trade Secret Attorney
When a key employee leaves for a competitor, the value of counsel will be measured in days, because the covenant and the information at stake will be hardest to protect once the harm is done. The Dallas non-compete and trade secret attorneys at Roquemore Skierski PLLC will bring decades of Texas litigation experience and knowledge of the North Texas courts to covenant disputes and trade secret misappropriation on either side. To enforce or defend a non-compete, or to protect a trade secret, call 972-325-6591 or contact Roquemore Skierski PLLC online to arrange a consultation.
How our team resolves business disputes, from start to finish.
We review the governing documents, build a factual timeline, gather key evidence, confirm deadlines, and align the legal approach with the client's business objectives.
We send a strategic demand letter identifying the dispute, proposing solutions, and setting a deadline. When assets or trade secrets are at risk, we seek immediate court relief to prevent further harm.
We pursue negotiation or mediation where productive, while continuing to preserve evidence and develop the case so leverage remains intact if settlement efforts do not succeed.
If a resolution is not reached, we file suit, use focused motions and discovery to narrow the dispute, present the case at trial, and enforce any favorable judgment.
Adjacent work the team supports.
Yes, a former employee can be sued for taking trade secrets even without a non-compete, because the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act will protect qualifying information regardless of whether a contract was signed. What will matter is whether the information derived value from being secret and whether the company took reasonable measures to protect it.
Non-compete agreements will be enforceable in Texas when they meet the requirements of the Texas Covenants Not to Compete Act, meaning the covenant is ancillary to an otherwise enforceable agreement and its limits on time, geography, and scope of activity are reasonable. A covenant that reaches too far will not automatically fail, because a court will be permitted to reform it to reasonable limits and enforce it as reformed.
If a covenant is found to be too broad, a Texas court will reform it rather than void it, narrowing the time, geographic area, or scope of activity to what is reasonable and then enforcing the reformed version. That rule means an employee should not assume an overbroad covenant is unenforceable, and an employer should not assume the covenant will be enforced exactly as written.