The High Court handed down judgment on a substantial “team move” claim on Friday 25 October 2019, after a four-week trial earlier this year (Alesco et al v Bishopsgate et al [2019] EWHC 2839 (QB)). Mr Justice Freedman, in a judgment running to some 140 pages, dismissed the claimants’ claim that a number of its rivals had conspired with employees of Alesco unlawfully to poach a team of brokers. In dismissing that claim, and ordering Alesco to pay over £3m in costs, the Court gave important guidance on team move cases, including as to lawful competition, the importance of evidence rather than suspicion, the ambit of the duty of fidelity owed by employees, and the circumstances in which employees will owe fiduciary duties to their employers.
A copy of the judgment is available here.
David Craig QC (leading Amy Rogers of 11 KBW and Jamie Susskind of Littleton Chambers) represented the corporate defendants, instructed by Michael Anderson of Lewis Silkin LLP.
