Alan and Maggie were good friends who both were in the Legal Studies program at Highline College together. After graduating, Alan got a job with a top law firm, Smith Jones and Jacobs, PLLC, in Seattle. Maggie got a job in Amazon’s legal department. Alan’s law firm worked for Amazon and he worked with Maggie on several large projects. While working together on these large and sensitive projects for 5 years, both learned trade secrets valuable to Amazon. Both Alan and Maggie signed one-year contracts with their respective employers. The contracts contained clauses that provided that they would not compete against their former employers for a period of four years after leaving their jobs. The area covered by the restrictions for both Alan and Maggie was a radius of 1,000 miles from their places of employment.

Alan and Maggie talked about these trade secrets and decided to open their own business to profit from their work and knowledge of the trade secrets. Alan and Maggie resigned and opened their business within 75 miles of their old jobs. The business and their work are similar to their old jobs. Amazon and Smith, Jones and Jacobs sued both Alan ad Maggie to enforce the non-compete covenants in the original contracts Alan and Maggie signed. Discuss the probable outcome of the lawsuits.

Fully explain and support your answer, and you must provide at least one example. Examples can be real cases, cases/fact patterns from the book, or hypotheticals. 

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

The probable outcome of the lawsuits involving Alan and Maggie will likely depend on various factors including the specific terms of the noncompete clauses applicable state laws and the circumstances ... View the full answer