Christopher P. Stief

Chris Stief is a partner in the Philadelphia office, past co-chair and co-founder of the firm’s Employee Defection and Trade Secrets Practice Group, and a core member of the International Practice Group and Financial Services Industry Team. Chris represents employers in labor and employment matters, with a nationwide and international practice focusing on restrictive covenant and trade secrets issues. His practice includes litigating and advising companies on matters relating to covenants not to compete, non-solicitation and non-disclosure agreements, unfair competition, employee raiding and team moves, trade secrets, duty of loyalty, the U.S. Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), the U.S. Computer Fraud & Abuse Act (CFAA), and various state trade secrets and unfair competition statutes. He has a particular focus on advising and providing representation on restrictive covenant issues for companies that have a multi-state or multi-national workforce, and a consequent need to interpret and account for the varying laws of diverse jurisdictions. Chris is also a CEDR Accredited Mediator, having successfully completed the Mediator Skills Training Program of the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution in London. There are five main segments to Chris’s practice:

1. Drafting & Implementing Restrictive Covenants & Confidentiality Programs: Chris regularly assists companies with drafting restrictive covenants and helps clients develop programs to protect their competitive assets against employee departures. He places particular emphasis on advising and creating such programs for businesses that operate on a multi-state or multi-national basis, helping employers manage the challenges of developing and implementing a consistent corporate approach across a broad range of sometimes conflicting jurisdictional law and workplace cultures. International and cross-border drafting and strategy is an area of increasing demand.
2. Employee Transitions -- Strategic Planning, Advice & Counseling: Chris spends a good deal of time engaged in strategic planning with companies about potential recruits or upcoming employee transitions and onboarding. This includes risk assessment of prospective recruiting ventures, as well as the formulation of strategic options to address or minimize legal risks while preserving the business value of a hiring and expansion opportunity. Chris has provided counseling, advice and risk assessment relating to hundreds of employee transitions throughout the United States.
3. Restrictive Covenant, Trade Secrets and Employee Raiding/Team Move Litigation: Chris has handled litigation and other contentious non-compete, trade secrets, employee raiding and team-move disputes throughout the United States (at least 45 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico), as well as international matters arising out of key jurisdictions in Asia, Europe, South & Central America, and the Middle East. This includes both enforcement and defense, and many of his litigation and arbitration matters have involved applications for temporary restraining orders or preliminary injunctions, along with claims for money damages. Chris has experience leading litigation teams in cross-border restrictive covenant litigation, including prosecuting and resisting anti-suit injunction actions in both U.S. and the High Court Chancery Division in London, including litigation involving the application of the EU’s Brussels Regulation (Recast) on Personal Jurisdiction.
   
   He has represented clients in numerous industries, including securities brokerage (retail private client and trading & sales desks); private banking and family office services; insurance services, brokers, carriers, and managed healthcare; pharmacy and pharmacy benefits; retail (physical and online); high fashion; athletic and outdoor apparel and accessories; radio (on-air talent and sales); direct response television (on-air talent); home and business security and premises automation; advertising; chemical manufacturing and sales; pharmaceutical, life sciences, medical device and biotech; publishing; computer software, sales and services; telecommunications; industrial gas distribution; market research; business consulting; medical, dental and veterinary practices and hospitals; employee placement, staffing and PEO; long haul trucking and freight forwarding; automobile and auto parts manufacturing; auto dealership; packaging; government contracting; mortgage lenders, brokers and securitization; credit unions; precision manufacturing and others.
4. Mergers & Acquisitions: Chris’s restrictive covenant practice frequently intersects with mergers and acquisitions. This includes: (a) drafting restrictive covenants to use in purchase agreements, (b) developing restrictive covenant and retention agreements for key employees, (c) assessment of assignability and successor enforcement rights for restrictive covenants previously entered into by employees of target companies, (d) litigation to enforce sale-of-business covenants, (e) risk assessment and strategy formulation for third parties recruiting employees out of a competitor's pending acquisition target, (f) litigation relating to alleged employee “raids” of a recently acquired workforce, and (g) advising companies on implementation of effective restrictive covenant and asset protection programs to help position a company for potential acquisition, investment, or financing.
5. Alternative Dispute Resolution: Mediation, Arbitration Agreements, and Arbitrability Disputes: Chris is a CEDR Accredited Mediator, having successfully completed the mediation skills program of the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution in London. Having been actively engaged with matters on behalf of securities broker-dealers and registered representatives throughout much of his practice, Chris has frequently handled matters in which the interpretation and enforcement of arbitration agreements, and disputes as to the nature and scope of arbitrability of claims, have been at issue. These questions are typically governed by the parties’ arbitration agreements and the U.S. Federal Arbitration Act, the New York Arbitration Act CPLR Article 75, and other state arbitration statutes. Chris has experience with arbitration and/or mediation of disputes at FINRA Dispute Resolution, Inc. and its predecessor organizations at the NASD and NYSE, as well as AAA and JAMS in the U.S. and CEDR in London.

Chris is a Chambers USA Ranked Lawyer for Pennsylvania Labor & Employment, is "AV" Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell, and has been selected for inclusion in Who's Who Legal USA – Management Labor & Employment and in Best Lawyers for both Litigation-Labor & Employment Law and Trade Secrets Law. In 2023 and various prior years, he was listed as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer for Employment & Labor. Chris is a past Co-Chair of both the Philadelphia and the Delaware County Bar Associations Labor & Employment Law Committees. Chris is a founder and co-leader of the Fisher Phillips Financial Services Recruitment Litigation Conference, which is returning for its 14th iteration in October 2024 as a participatory conference focusing on issues relevant to restrictive covenant litigation among broker-dealers, private wealth management firms, Registered Investment Advisors (RIA), private banks and insurance carrier distribution networks and agencies. Conferences have been held since 2003, and topics addressed have ranged from raiding to FINRA and SEC regulations, and application of the Protocol for Broker Recruiting. In 2018, Chris was one of the keynote speakers and acted as a co-organizer of a conference in London, Global Business Protections 2018: International Restrictive Covenants and Confidential Information.