Warriors88
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- California
Hello!
I'm currently in the process of starting my own business in CA and need some legal advice.
I've worked for this current company in nightlife for over 8 years, as well as worked in nightlife for years prior to that. I am the top guy in the business under the owner - we provide promotions/marketing/management for various nightclubs in the city.
I am currently incredibly valuable for this business as I plan and execute all the events, maintain and build all relationships with partner venues, bring on and train new staff, and pretty much run our entire promotional business myself while my boss takes nearly all of the revenue for himself leaving minimal leftover for myself and next to nothing for our staff.
The majority of our promoters are 1099 independent contractors and our event managers work part time (less than 15 hours per week) managing events and are paid hourly.
Given I bring all the value to the business, hold all the relationships now with the venues/"clients", and he has made it clear he does not want me to become a partner in the business I have decided to start my own nightlife company.
The majority of the staff want to leave with me to start this new venture, and several of the venues have already told me they would prefer to work with me if I were to start my own.
I am planning on telling him I am leaving to start my own business in 10 days. One small business lawyer told me he could potentially sue me if I were to work with any of his past "clients" as i would be violating the Misappropriation of Trade Secrets by working with these venues. There are no signed contracts with the venues currently, just emails describing what our pay will be given our production on the events. They are also public knowledge as the biggest venues in the city and therefore aren't technically "trade secrets" and I worked in nightlife for years prior to starting with my employer and could have easily found these clients myself. I am not taking any email lists from the company and there aren't top secret trade secrets in promotions that I hadn't already learned myself working in nightlife prior to this business.
My questions are:
I'm currently in the process of starting my own business in CA and need some legal advice.
I've worked for this current company in nightlife for over 8 years, as well as worked in nightlife for years prior to that. I am the top guy in the business under the owner - we provide promotions/marketing/management for various nightclubs in the city.
I am currently incredibly valuable for this business as I plan and execute all the events, maintain and build all relationships with partner venues, bring on and train new staff, and pretty much run our entire promotional business myself while my boss takes nearly all of the revenue for himself leaving minimal leftover for myself and next to nothing for our staff.
The majority of our promoters are 1099 independent contractors and our event managers work part time (less than 15 hours per week) managing events and are paid hourly.
Given I bring all the value to the business, hold all the relationships now with the venues/"clients", and he has made it clear he does not want me to become a partner in the business I have decided to start my own nightlife company.
The majority of the staff want to leave with me to start this new venture, and several of the venues have already told me they would prefer to work with me if I were to start my own.
I am planning on telling him I am leaving to start my own business in 10 days. One small business lawyer told me he could potentially sue me if I were to work with any of his past "clients" as i would be violating the Misappropriation of Trade Secrets by working with these venues. There are no signed contracts with the venues currently, just emails describing what our pay will be given our production on the events. They are also public knowledge as the biggest venues in the city and therefore aren't technically "trade secrets" and I worked in nightlife for years prior to starting with my employer and could have easily found these clients myself. I am not taking any email lists from the company and there aren't top secret trade secrets in promotions that I hadn't already learned myself working in nightlife prior to this business.
My questions are:
- Is there anything I can get in trouble for if the majority of the promoters/staff want to leave to work with me when I start my new business (the non-1099 employees only signed an agreement acknowledging they are 1099 employees and nothing regarding non-competes which are also illegal in california)
- If the venues decide to work with me instead of my employers company once I start my new business is there anything wrong with that legally?
- Do the 1099 or part time employees need to give him notice before leaving?
- If I talked with the 1099/part time employees about my plans to start the new business while still employed with current employer is there anything wrong with that?
