The Business of Protecting Customer Relationships

In an article appearing in the January 25, 2012 edition of www.law360.com, Peter L. Altieri and David J. Clark discuss how -- over a dozen years after the New York Court of Appeals specifically recognized, in BDO Seidman v. Hirshberg, 93 N.Y.2d 382, 690 N.Y.S.2d 854 (1999), that an employer may have a legitimate and protectable business interest in preventing former employees from exploiting or appropriating the relationships and goodwill of its customers which had been created and maintained at the employer’s expense -- some New York courts still appear to be reluctant to uphold contractual provisions in employment agreements that are designed simply to protect customer goodwill.