Jennifer S. Baldocchi

Baldocchi is the chair of the international employee mobility and trade secrets practice and the co-chair of the Los Angeles employment law department at Paul Hastings. Her practice focuses on employee mobility and intellectual property, including trade secrets, covenants not to compete, unfair competition and fiduciary duties.

Meanwhile, as a key member of the firm's Covid-19 task force, she is monitoring the web of legislation and state, local and national rules that have arisen related to the pandemic. "It's a broad spectrum of issues, and this has been the busiest three months of my career," she said. "We're trying to learn the laws as they're being written, and they're evolving constantly. For example, the term 'essential business' has truly been a moving target."

Last year, she successfully completed a significant case involving litigation both in California and in Texas with potential national implications. Baldocchi was a lead partner representing Fiber Systems International Inc. and its parent Amphenol Corp., makers of fiber optics. When a senior executive in Texas quit and began working for a direct competitor, Glenair Inc., in California, he took sensitive and valuable information and shared confidential business information with former FSI clients on behalf of his new employer, according to court documents.

"What does it mean to be working in California," Baldocchi said, summing up a key question raised by the case. The executive was under a restraining order forbidding his sharing of the information, and he had entered into a Texas Employment Agreement with FSI that contained Texas choice of law and venue provisions. It precluded certain post-employment activities. FSI retained Baldocchi to enforce those provisions. Fiber Systems International Inc. v. Dabrowski, 417-05506-2016 (417th Judicial Dist., Collin County, Tex., filed Oct. 16, 2016).

In California, Glenair and the executive sued Baldocchi's clients with a goal that would have led to a striking outcome: a change in the law regarding employment contracts. The plaintiffs asked a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge to invalidate the executive's lawful post-employment restraints and those found in every FSA and Amphenol contract nationwide. Glenair v. Amphenol Corp. EC065871 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Nov. 30, 2016).

Baldocchi found herself representing the defendants in California and the plaintiffs in Texas. At stake were not only her clients' agreements, but also the potential impact on California law.

In the California case she wrote, "To Plaintiffs, it should not matter whether these hypothetical parties made their contracts in 'California or outside of California or on Mars for that matter.'"

Baldocchi persuaded the judge to grant summary judgment and dismiss Glenair's claims seeking to invalidate non-compete agreements for individuals in states outside California. "That would have been a huge sea change in the law," she said.

-- John Roemer