Can I prevent a piano teacher who works at my studio from taking my clients with him when he quits?

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Can I prevent a piano teacher who works at my studio from taking my clients with him when he quits?

Asked on May 8, 2015 under Employment Labor Law, Illinois

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 8 years ago | Contributor

Yes and no.

He is not allowed to deliberately solicit clients of yours that he only knows due to his employment; doing so would be using proprietary information (your client list), which he was given access to only for his employment, to his personal advantage. However:

1) Even he can't solicit customers to go with him, *they* can follow him; the restriction on using proprietary information applies to him using your information to solicit customers, but does not bar customers from choosing to go with him. And yes--sometimes it can be very difficult to determine whether he sought out the customer, or the customer sought out him.

(In the future, you can protect yourself better from having employees sign an agreement when they start working for you that they will not work with your customers in any situation after they leave you.)

2) If the teacher brought the customer with him--that is, the customer followed the teacher to you--then it's his customer in a sense and he can ask them to stay with him.


IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Answer(s) provided above are for general information only. The attorney providing the answer was not serving as the attorney for the person submitting the question or in any attorney-client relationship with such person. Laws may vary from state to state, and sometimes change. Tiny variations in the facts, or a fact not set forth in a question, often can change a legal outcome or an attorney's conclusion. Although AttorneyPages.com has verified the attorney was admitted to practice law in at least one jurisdiction, he or she may not be authorized to practice law in the jurisdiction referred to in the question, nor is he or she necessarily experienced in the area of the law involved. Unlike the information in the Answer(s) above, upon which you should NOT rely, for personal advice you can rely upon we suggest you retain an attorney to represent you.

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