


Usually you see the agreement come into play as part of a bad employee departure.  Employee leaves employer and then proceeds to use “confidential information” in a new venture.  The confidentiality agreement might be part of a larger non-compete fight or may serve as the basis for a lawsuit itself.  There is always a fight over what is or isn’t “confidential information” or a trade-secret.

This brings us to the real world sports example of former ESPN announcer Adnan Virk.  Virk was a rising star in ESPN’s announcing cadre.  On February 1, he was escorted to his desk at ESPN’s Bristol, Connecticut headquarters where he was allowed to remove his personal items and then escorted off site – typical over the top employee departure.  All reports indicate he was fired for leaking confidential information about ESPN”s baseball coverage that turned up in a news story.  The information was considered confidential by ESPN.  So ESPN fired him with no severance.  Virk recently denied the accusations and stated his lawyers were meeting with ESPN’s lawyers to resolve the matter.  So it goes…

I suspect Virk signed a confidentiality agreement and ESPN claims he breached it.  How the matter is resolved remains to be seen but we will continue to follow it.  The ESPN example illustrates the importance of these types of agreements and underscores the fact that companies should continue to train/educate employees on confidentiality so they can protect their own confidential information or information of clients/customers.