Part­ner, Nick Dale and Senior Asso­ciate, Sean Green­wood, recent­ly led the suc­cess­ful defence of a group of for­mer employ­ees of a major real estate fran­chise who left to join a competitor

Their for­mer employ­er sought inter­locu­to­ry injunc­tions restrain­ing our clients from work­ing in their new jobs. The deci­sion is high­ly sig­nif­i­cant because it inter­prets aspects of indus­try stan­dard employ­ment con­tracts for real estate agents, and rein­forces an ear­li­er deci­sion from 2020 involv­ing the same con­trac­tu­al claus­es. The deci­sion also reit­er­ates that it may be more dif­fi­cult to enforce non-com­pete claus­es where employ­ees are ter­mi­nat­ed for rea­sons beyond their own con­trol, and that restraints must be rea­son­able if they are to be enforced.

The case involved com­plex issues about non-solic­i­ta­tion of the for­mer employ­er’s clients and con­fi­den­tial infor­ma­tion, as well as employ­ment law issues sur­round­ing redun­dan­cy. Our clients had a con­vinc­ing win, with the inter­locu­to­ry appli­ca­tions against them being dis­missed with costs at the first avail­able opportunity. 

A link to the case is here

Nick and Sean instruct­ed Bernard Lloyd of Coun­sel, thank him for all of his skill­ful work and acknowl­edge the invalu­able con­tri­bu­tions of Esther Koo — Senior Asso­ciate , Daniel Miller — Asso­ciate, Suzi Sto­janovs­ki — Senior Asso­ciate and Cather­ine Aird — Legal Sec­re­tary to the outcome.

If you would like to repub­lish this arti­cle, it is gen­er­al­ly approved, but pri­or to doing so please con­tact the Mar­ket­ing team at marketing@​swaab.​com.​au. This arti­cle is not legal advice and the views and com­ments are of a gen­er­al nature only. This arti­cle is not to be relied upon in sub­sti­tu­tion for detailed legal advice.

Publications

Valen­tine’s Day in the Work­place (2025 Edition)

Valen­tine’s Day, the cel­e­bra­tion of romance and roman­tic love, takes place annu­al­ly on Feb­ru­ary 14.While many assid­u­ous­ly avoid what they con­sid­er…

The Employ­ment Real­i­ty of TV Fame (2025 Edition)

Real­i­ty tele­vi­sion shows thrive on intrigue and dra­ma. A key com­po­nent of suc­cess­ful real­i­ty TV shows is the con­tes­tant view­ers love…

Aus­tralia Day Sub­sti­tu­tion: The Legal Issues (2025 Edition)

It has been report­ed that some of the largest employ­ers in Aus­tralia, includ­ing Tel­stra, Com­mon­wealth Bank and Aus­tralian­Su­per, are giv­ing…

In the News

Michael Byrnes appeared on Break­fast with Ron Wil­son on 2SM on 13 Feb­ru­ary 2025 to dis­cuss legal issues relat­ed to Valen­tine’s Day in the workplace

Michael Byrnes appeared on Break­fast with Ron Wil­son on 2SM on 13 Feb­ru­ary 2025 to dis­cuss legal issues relat­ed to…

Michael Byrnes appeared on Nights with John Stan­ley on 2GB and 4BC on 11 Feb­ru­ary 2025 to dis­cuss legal issues relat­ed to Valen­tine’s Day in the workplace

Michael Byrnes appeared on Nights with John Stan­ley on 2GB and 4BC on 11 Feb­ru­ary 2025 to dis­cuss legal issues…

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, How to nav­i­gate mis­con­duct inves­ti­ga­tions involv­ing men­tal health chal­lenges”, pub­lished in HRM Online on 4 Feb­ru­ary 2025

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“How to nav­i­gate mis­con­duct inves­ti­ga­tions involv­ing men­tal health chal­lenges”, pub­lished in HRM Online…

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