Jennifer S. Baldocchi

Paul Hastings • Los Angeles


For 30 years with Paul Hastings, Jennifer Baldocchi has handled employment litigation. But her "sweet spot" has long been employee mobility, that is disputes over employees leaving one company for a competitor. "If I am known for something throughout the country with clients and also internally at the firm, that is my expertise," she said.


She is now the chair of her firm's global employee mobility and trade secrets practice, as well as co-vice chair of its employment law department as a whole.


In January, she tried a nonjury case in Nevada on behalf of Coincident Capital, a successful cryptocurrency hedge fund, which accused its CEO of launching another fund. Baldocchi said the case is the first trial she knows of raising these issues involving a cryptocurrency company. She is expecting the trial judge to issue a verdict soon. Gilleland v. Shah, A-21-841165-B (Nev. 8th Jd'l. Dist. Ct., filed Sept. 16, 2021).


The five-week trial was essentially a business divorce case, she said. "These new companies are incredibly successful ... and they're having to confront many of the employment issues that we deal with."


Baldocchi is representing Allergan against a company that makes products that compete directly with Allergan's Botox and dermal filler Juvéderm. The lawsuit alleges the company poached in-house lawyers, regulatory professionals and sales and marketing employees, as well as misappropriating secrets. Highlighting the companies' competition, the defendant has launched a "Break Up With Botox" marketing campaign, she said. Allergan Inc v. Revance Therapeutics Inc., 3:23-cv-00431 (M.D. Tenn., filed April 28, 2023).


She also represents defendants in trade secrets and employee mobility matters occasionally. For instance, she is defending an insurance company accused of luring away an employee of another insurer to start a competitor. In May, she won an order transferring the case from Orange County to Delaware. Copperpoint Insurance Co. v. W.R. Berkley Corp., 30-2023-01337987 (O.C. Super. Ct., filed July 1, 2023).


Baldocchi said she mostly represents plaintiffs, but from 20% to 40% of her clients are defendants. "I'm pretty good at resolving them pre-litigation when we're on the defense side," she said. "I feel like I've been doing this long enough on the plaintiff's side that I know exactly what needs to be done when you're defending one of these cases."


One big change coming to her area of practice is what she described as "a groundswell of a movement against covenants not to compete." That culminated in April when the FTC issued a rule generally declaring many non-compete clauses to be unenforceable. Then early last month, a federal judge in Texas granted a limited injunction against the rule. The judge is set to issue a final decision on Aug. 30, but the FTC rule is to take effect on Sept. 4.


"I'm doing a lot of advice to clients on what to do [regarding] these rules ... because it is such a shifting area of law right now," Baldocchi said.