Welcome to those of you who have opened this article ‘Joining Your New Employer’ – it is the last in a four-part series of articles we commissioned leading HR lawyer, David Hunt, Partner at Farrer & Co to write for us.
This feature is aimed at giving advice to employees if you are approaching the end of your gardening leave and will soon be joining your new employer. As you can imagine, there are numerous pitfalls along the way in this delicate process; David Hunt draws your attention to these so you can be ready to perform to the best of your ability and impress your new employer when you arrive.
Part 4 – The Art of Joining
- When you are joining your new employer, you should double-check that you will not be bringing with you any confidential information or documents from your current firm.
- You should avoid sending marketing e-mails, or inviting to seminars etc any clients who are caught by any non-solicitation covenants. Remember that if you only have non-solicitation covenants there is no bar on clients seeking you out and instructing you. If, however, it appears they have simply responded to a marketing communication sent to them then that could be unlawful solicitation.
- The new employer itself will not normally be subject to any restrictions regarding the announcement of your arrival. It is perfectly free to issue press releases, announce on web sites and circulate to its existing mailing list. This is lawful. However, the process could become unlawful – for example where you participate in the mail shot, the new employer’s existing mailing list already contains some of your existing clients and the message circulated effectively invites them to get in touch. In these circumstances, your participation in the mail shot could breach a non- solicitation provision in respect of your clients.
- From time to time while you are joining your new employer, questions will arise relating to your restrictions – for example where you are asked to participate in a tender to a client where that client is a restricted client under your previous firm’s restrictive covenants. Always seek advice from your new employer’s legal advisers and independently if in doubt.
Good Luck in Your New Job!
In this series of articles, David Hunt, the author, has provided valuable advice and has chronologically taken the employee through the precarious journey from tendering your resignation graciously to your boss, pinpointing areas to be aware of during your garden leave, right up to joining your new employer. We hope that you have found the series interesting and helpful.
If it has inspired you to make a move then take a look at our current opportunities
