What We Do

The highest-stakes employment matters are rarely just legal disputes. They arise with urgency and complexity, and can carry serious consequences for careers, businesses, and reputations that took years to build. At Glenn Agre, we understand these realities, and we bring both the legal firepower and the strategic judgment to handle employment matters at that level.

Companies and senior individuals come to us with their mission-critical matters: executive entrances and exits with significant financial exposure, trade secrets disputes requiring emergency relief, partnership and shareholder dissolutions, and internal investigations demanding discretion, speed, and sound judgment. When the outcome threatens to affect a business materially, a career, or a competitive position, that is where we step in.

Unlike most firms, we represent both employers and employees, as plaintiffs and as defendants. That unique perspective is a Glenn Agre advantage. We know how the other side builds its case, where it is vulnerable, and how it evaluates risk, because we have litigated and won from all sides.

Our clients include C-suite executives, founders, partners, and senior professionals whose compensation, equity, and professional standing represent significant value. We also represent companies—including private equity-backed businesses, financial services firms, and public companies—navigating high-consequence employment situations. We serve clients across the financial services, private equity, technology, manufacturing, fashion, and entertainment sectors, and our advice is grounded in a working knowledge of how those industries operate, compete for talent, and manage reputational, business, and legal risk.

Who We Are

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Why Clients Come to Glenn Agre

Non-Compete, Trade Secrets, and Restrictive Covenant Enforcement and Defense

When a key employee or executive departs with confidential information, client relationships, or competitive intelligence, the damage can be immediate. And other times, senior employees may have legitimate reasons for accepting a new position that would otherwise be barred by overbroad restrictive covenants. We both pursue and defend against trade secrets claims, enforce and challenge non-compete and non-solicitation agreements, and seek emergency injunctive relief when moving quickly is the difference between protecting what a client has built and losing it.

Partnership, Shareholder, and Founder Disputes

Among the most financially significant and personally complex matters we handle are disputes between partners, co-founders, and shareholders. We represent both the businesses and the individuals within them, including partners seeking to enforce their rights and companies managing the departure of a founder or key stakeholder. These cases involve equity, deferred compensation, fiduciary obligations, and the unwind of business relationships. Glenn Agre brings the kind of studied attention and commercial judgment required to guide these disputes to a favorable resolution.

Discrimination, Harassment, and Retaliation

We represent both companies and individuals in litigations and arbitrations involving discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims—including race, sex, age, and disability. We also advise companies and individuals alike on how to navigate the complex web of whistleblowing and whistleblower retaliation laws.

Internal Investigations

When a company faces allegations of misconduct or regulatory scrutiny, the response in the first days can matter as much as the outcome. We guide boards, audit committees, and senior employees through internal and external investigations with the discretion, credibility, and speed these situations demand. When these matters involve sensitive regulatory or law enforcement issued (such as alleged violations of FINRA rules, SEC regulations, or the securities laws), we also draw on the experience and skill of our White-Collar Litigation & Investigations practice to protect our clients’ interests.

Executive Agreements and Separation Matters

We negotiate and litigate the agreements that govern senior professional relationships—employment contracts, separation and severance terms, and compensation disputes—for both the companies that draft them and the executives who sign them. Our experience covers the full range of executive compensation structures, including stock grants, options, carried interest, deferred awards, and other arrangements frequently at the center of high-value employment disputes. For high-earning executives and the businesses they lead, these documents define financial security, professional freedom, and competitive boundaries. We treat them accordingly.

FINRA Arbitration

For financial services firms and the senior professionals who work in them, employment disputes are often heard by specialized FINRA arbitrators. We represent both firms and individuals in FINRA arbitration proceedings involving compensation disputes, wrongful termination, and matters arising from transitions between broker-dealers—with an understanding of the industry that informs every strategic decision we make.

Who We Represent

We represent financial market participants, regularly including:

  • Companies
  • Founders and owners
  • Boards of directors
  • Executives
  • Other professionals

Why We Win

As a regular advocate for employees, employers, and owners, we have deep insight into the perspectives of all parties to the disputes we litigate. As lawyers who draft separation agreements, restrictive covenants, and other employment agreements that often become the subject of disputes, we understand the nuances of the documents we litigate. And as an employment practice unattached to an Am Law 100 firm, we are free of the conflicts of interest that limit their representations. 

Our lawyers have represented:

  • A publicly traded airline technology company in an internal investigation of allegations of sexual harassment.
  • Honeywell in an employment dispute relating to the enforceability of restrictive covenants.
  • A leading macro advisory firm in a dispute relating to a former employee’s violation of restrictive covenants.
  • The co-founder of a video game gambling platform in a dispute with the company and his co-founder over allegations of wrongful termination and breaches of fiduciary duty.  
  • A wrongfully terminated venture capital investor in a dispute with a leading Silicon Valley investor and his emerging company fund.
  • A lawyer at an Am Law 100 firm in a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and retaliation.
  • A former partner at an Am Law 100 firm in New York and California ethics investigations into allegations of improper billing and violations of firm policies.