By Maria Bruno-Britz

Trade secrets and intellectual property are perhaps two of the areas most overlooked at banks. However, now that the industry is facing unprecedented change, financial institutions would be wise to turn their attention toward protecting such proprietary information -- especially as it relates to erstwhile employees, says attorney Bradford Newman, chair of the Silicon Valley Employment Law Department and leader of the International Employee Mobility and Trade Secrets practice with the law firm Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker LLP (New York).

"Most global financial institutions have fairly robust data usage policies. What's different now," Newman says, "is that we're seeing an unheralded number of employees being laid off at one time -- they are transitory. Banks need to recognize that when they have this kind of employee movement, controlling their data is of paramount importance." It's not unheard for laid-off workers to seek a position with a competitor of their former employer, he notes.

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