Part 2 - Anatomy of a Big-Time Non-Compete Dispute

Last week, we introduced you to a non-compete dispute between American Realty Capital Properties, Inc. (ARCP), on one side, and the Carlyle Group LP and Jeffrey Holland, on the other side.  Now, it’s time to find out more about the parties’ arguments.

In its application for a preliminary injunction, filed on April 1 of this year, ARCP made two main arguments.  First, it argued that it could legitimately enforce the provisions in Holland’s agreements that precluded him from using its confidential information and from soliciting its investors.  Second, it argued that by marketing Carlyle’s investments, Holland was breaching these provisions.

In the hearing on the motion, held a week later on April 8, the court summarized the dispute as follows:

It seems to me that the key question is this: [ARCP] is concerned that Mr. Holland’s work for Carlyle … will be in direct competition with the plaintiff’s business of marketing REITs … to financial advisors because that was the business Mr. Holland oversaw while he was with Cole, the predecessor to ARCP, and that that business is highly dependent upon relationships with independent financial advisors or financial advisors with firms.

Holland, ARCP said, would be exploiting these relationships in violation of his agreements if he was allowed to market Carlyle’s products to Cole’s investors.  It counsel argued that ARCP would be “irreparably harmed by that because he will be preying upon . . . my client's confidential information and on its good will.”

Holland, meanwhile, argued that Carlyle did not market REITs, that he would be marketing Carlyle’s products mostly to a different class of purchasers, and that if his agreements covered these activities, they would be too broad to be enforceable.  As his counsel summarized: “It cannot be the case that because you learn how to build a retail relationship in one financial product, that you can’t do it in another if you’re not competing.”

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about the court’s resolution of the dispute, as well as an interesting side-effect of its ruling.

• Breach of Contract
• Noncompete Agreements ‎