JPMorgan Chase units sued six former executives who left for rival Morgan Stanley, seeking a court order blocking them from enticing bank clients and co-workers to follow.
A federal judge in Newark, New Jersey, will take up the request on July 6, according to court records.
The six ex-JPMorgan workers are a vice president, two executive directors and three managing directors. All quit in February and later joined the brokerage, according to a complaint filed May 7.
Accusing their ex-employees of misappropriating trade secrets and breaching their duty of loyalty, JPMorgan Chase Bank and JPMorgan Securities asked the court to bar the executives from using bank documents and proprietary information at least until the matter is put before a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration panel.
Attorneys for the former JPMorgan personnel oppose the request, arguing that basic client contact information isn't a trade secret and that the bank can't show it faces any imminent harm.
The lawyers also say that soliciting clients is legal and is allowed under a protocol to which both companies are signatories, and that JPMorgan has argued there's nothing wrong with client solicitations when it was done by people it hired from other firms. They accuse JPM of hypocrisy.
