Sherman & Howard litigator Mark Williams and corporate and transactional attorney Garth Jensen were highlighted in a Law Week Colorado Best Lawyers feature. In the article, Williams discusses the recent trends in litigation such as non-compete and breach of confidentiality issues, governance disputes, and intellectual property matters. Jensen shares his insights on how changes in the administrative and regulatory environment are impacting clients.

Below are excerpts from the article.

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Mark Williams, a member at Sherman & Howard, said that he sees a lot of covenant-not-to-compete and breach of confidentiality agreement litigation.

“The federal FTC Order and resultant Federal case law, coupled with Colorado legislation on the same topic raises many interesting issues for employers to contend with,” Williams told Law Week via email. “We have been fortunate to find our way for clients.”

Garth Jensen, member at Sherman & Howard, said that his clients seem to be more impacted on the administrative and regulatory front than by court or legislative changes. “New SEC disclosure initiatives for my public company clients, heightened antitrust enforcement positions for clients in certain industries and general increased regulatory compliance that add to operating costs.”

“Many of my larger corporate clients are concerned with how to successfully operate while navigating through an increasingly complex (and sometime[s] conflicting) regulatory environment. We need to be able to guide clients in this challenging area,” Jensen said.

There’s a separate trend that Williams is seeing in small- to medium-sized companies, governance disputes.

“The disputes are of all kinds and sizes, but the common theme is that the company starts doing great, one party does not work as hard as the others feel they should, and then recrimination starts,” Williams said.

He added that he also sees many issues between businesses related to the use of another company’s intellectual property. “These too vary in substance and amount but are very common.”

In addition to IP claims, Williams is also seeing that M&A is picking up.

“Corporate lawyers should keep their litigators close to help avoid risk, manage risk, prevent litigation, or be prepared to deal with hiccups in the process,” Williams said. “Too often I see deals which could have been salvaged if the litigators had been involved early on.”

Williams saw preliminary injunction wins for companies in the covenant issues and in governance.

“It is always satisfying when an important client tells you how the guidance you gave and the hard choices you proposed, perhaps years ago, have led to substantial business success,” Jensen said.

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Read the full article HERE. (Subscription required.)