Chris Stief is a partner in the Philadelphia office. He has a national practice concentrating on issues of employee defection and recruitment, including litigating injunction and damages actions relating to: covenants not to compete, non-solicitation and non-disclosure agreements, unfair competition, employee raiding, trade secrets, duty of loyalty, the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act, the Economic Espionage Act, and state trade secrets and unfair competition statutes. Chris has litigated more than 500 employee defection and recruitment matters in approximately 65 state and federal courts in 45 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico, as well as matters arising out of Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Most cases involved applications for temporary or preliminary injunctions, along with damages claims. He has represented clients in numerous industries, including securities brokerage, private banking, online retailing, radio, software, computer sales and services, consulting, medical; insurance brokerage, insurance, employee placement and staffing, publishing, advertising, trucking, direct response television, government contracting, and mortgage lending and securitization. In addition to litigating, Chris drafts restrictive covenants and helps clients develop programs to protect competitive assets against employee defection, and to minimize risks when hiring from competitors. Chris is “AV” Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell, and has been recognized in Philadelphia Magazine’s “Pennsylvania Super Lawyers” for 2004-2006.