Lorenger & Carnell PLC: More News

When a large public utility company was sued recently by two discrimination plaintiffs seeking millions of dollars in damages, we took aggressive action to end the case almost before it began. The D.C. Superior Court accepted our arguments to dismiss the case entirely for failure to state a claim.
When a local construction company was sued for alleged overtime violations in a potential federal class action, we took immediate action to limit potential liability by narrowing the class and ultimately by negotiating a favorable resolution that allowed the company to avoid class certification, provide minimal back pay, and secure a court-sealed settlement.
On behalf of a long-standing client, we recently filed suit to enforce a non-competition agreement against a former key employee who had been hired by the client’s chief competitor. After several months of discovery, we secured a favorable settlement, pursuant to which the competitor, among other things, agreed to refrain from hiring any of our client’s employees for a substantial period of time.
The firm recently represented a significant regional office furniture dealer in litigation in the Fairfax County Circuit Court in which one of its much larger and better-financed competitors alleged that it had committed various torts and contract breaches as a result of its retention of one of the competitors’ former high-ranking executives. After several months of hard-fought litigation, the firm prevailed in a three-day evidentiary hearing in which the court denied the competitor’s motion for a broad preliminary injunction.
The firm recently represented the co-founder of an important IT firm who, following her termination, sought to secure relief from a broad post-employment restrictive covenant. When her former company refused to negotiate, Lorenger & Carnell filed a declaratory judgment action the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia seeking to have the non-competition agreement declared unenforceable. After defeating the company’s request to move the case to another jurisdiction, the firm filed an aggressive motion for judgment on the pleadings, which prompted a favorable settlement just days before the hearing and included a complete release from the competitive restrictions.