Legal Question in Business Law in Pennsylvania

Re: Industrial espionage? not sure of title

This is actually a very sensitive issue. Depending on your company, business and position you need to act very carefully. You need an attorney, whether it is myself or someone else. Don't do anything until getting specific advice based on your situation. This happens to be an area that I am very familiar with this area as corporate compliance is a specialty of mine.

There are many ways to "play" the situation from simply getting out intact, to actually making money off of the situation (a very minimal potential). But your actions will dictate what happens. In no uncertain terms, you MUST NOT approach your employer and in any way suggest that any type of financial arrangement would buy your silence. In other words, your primary concern is to get out of a bad situation and save yourself, not to burn your employer or profit.

If you have not done so already you should be keeping a diary of exactly what transpires and when. You are keeping a record of events that you are personally aware of, things people do and say to you. If you hear of things, you may note those also, but specifically identify what you know personally from what you are made aware of by others. Name names and get dates and times exactly.

Above all, you must comply with your company's code of conduct or ethical guidelines. Specifically, do not take information in the hopes of "protecting" yourself. If there is something that is of signifigance, such as a memo or eMail, note the specifics (from, to, date and time, even messaeg codes if you can access them) in your diary, but DO NOT print it out and include it specifically in that diary.

This advice is general and may or may not fit your specific situation. In order to provide specific advice I, or any other attorney, would need to meet with you, discuss the specifics of the situation, the relevant documents, the applicable laws and your goals.

I am not your attorney and am not acting as your attorney and conversations with me are not protected under attorney-client privilege. My specific advice to you is to hire an attorney. I am willing to consider an attorney-client relationship but would require a meeting, review of the docments and the law, in addition to a signed retainer agreement setting out our relationship, before I would act as your attorney.

Roger Traversa

[email protected]