On November 12, California’s Fourth Appellate District finalized a ruling which sent a strong message to California employers. Businesses should revisit the scope of their confidentiality agreements to make certain the definition of “Confidential Information” is not so broad that it effectively prohibits former employees from working.

In Brown v. TGS Management, a former employee of an equities trading firm overturned an arbitration award against him on the grounds that the arbitrator’s award was ‘“inconsistent with the protection of a party’s statutory rights,’ and conflicts with [the] ‘explicit legislative expression of public policy.’”