J. Scott Gerien

Richard C. Rybicki frequently represents clients in unfair competition, trade secret and restrictive covenant matters as part of his Labor and Employment Law practice.  His approach emphasizes the importance of appropriate language, practices and technology infrastructure to ensure both the security of employers’ intellectual property and the enforceability of company policies.  He also focuses on the significant differences between state and international laws allowing, limiting or prohibiting certain types of restrictive covenants such as agreements not to compete. 

Mr. Rybicki has negotiated and litigated unfair competition, misappropriation, trade secret and restrictive covenant issues in state and federal courts throughout the United States.  These issues involved both restrictive covenants and the alleged misuse of proprietary information such as customer lists, financial information, personnel and sales data, engineering and production techniques, distributorship information, key employee relationships, and goodwill.  He has represented clients seeking to enforce their policies as well as clients seeking to limit the breadth of other companies’ restrictive covenants. Mr. Rybicki has also acted as lead counsel in numerous actions, including class actions,  under California’s Unfair Competition Law. 

Mr. Rybicki frequently speaks and writes on unfair competition and proprietary interests. He has spoken internationally on comparative confidentiality and restrictive covenant laws.

PRACTICE AREAS

Labor and Employment 
Intellectual Property (Trade Secret and Unfair Competition)
Litigation

EDUCATION 

B.A., University of California, Los Angeles, 1989
J.D., Cornell University Law School, 1992

rrybicki@dpf-law.com