Ogletree Deakins Adds New Leader to its Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets Practice Group

HOUSTON – November 3, 2023 – Ogletree Deakins, one of the largest labor and employment law firms representing management, is pleased to announce that Scott McLaughlin, a shareholder in the firm’s Houston office, has been selected to serve as co-chair of the firm’s national Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets Practice Group. McLaughlin will serve as co-chair alongside Christine Bestor Townsend. McLaughlin is replacing Tobias E. Schlueter, who co-founded the practice group and served as chair and recently co-chair. Schlueter is vacating the role to take on additional responsibilities within the firm but will remain on the practice group steering committee and continues to be active in the practice space.

The Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets Practice Group comprises more than 100 attorneys who leverage a collective wealth of experience and efficiency-built technology and litigation support to partner with companies of all sizes.

With a legal career spanning nearly 30 years, McLaughlin is a trusted litigator for clients facing trade secret, fiduciary, discrimination, wage and hour, and C-Suite matters. He regularly files lawsuits under the Defend Trade Secrets Act and related laws to recover information misappropriated by departing employees. He also has vast related experience in gathering, securing, and preserving electronic evidence.

“Unfair competition, specifically noncompete agreements, is a topic weighing on many employers’ minds with the rising number of local and federal restrictions,” said Christine Bestor Townsend, co-chair of the Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets Practice Group. “Scott has deep knowledge and a proven track record handling a full spectrum of unfair competition, restrictive agreement, and trade secrets matters. I am excited to have him join me in a leadership capacity as we continue to serve our clients in this important area of the law.”

Of McLaughlin and Townsend’s leadership of the group, Schlueter says, “Scott and Christine are preeminent practitioners and leaders in the restrictive covenant space. I am excited about this opportunity for them to apply their prodigious talents in service of our clients and colleagues in leading the Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets Practice Group into the future–a future with many challenges, including artificial intelligence and growing federal and state impediments.”

The Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets Practice Group regularly designs, modifies, and implements customized policies, best practices and procedures, and agreements regarding confidentiality, noncompetition, nonsolicitation, and inventions assignment. The attorneys in the group also investigate and remediate threatened or actual violations or breaches by current or former employees and provide strategic advice in connection with hiring employees who are subject to restrictive covenants or who may possess trade secrets.

In the past five years, the group has represented more than 750 clients in more than 1,000 unfair competition, trade secrets, and restrictive covenant matters. According to Lex Machina’s Trade Secret Litigation Report, Ogletree Deakins was the second-most active trade secrets law firm, representing clients in nearly 140 federal trade secrets lawsuits from 2018-2022.

About Ogletree Deakins
Ogletree Deakins is one of the largest labor and employment law firms representing management in all types of employment-related legal matters. Premier client service, as outlined in the firm’s Client Pledge, is one of the firm’s top priorities and a cornerstone of its core values. Best Law Firms^® has named Ogletree Deakins a “Law Firm of the Year” for 13 consecutive years. In the 2024 edition, the publication named Ogletree Deakins its “Law Firm of the Year” in the Employment Law – Management category. Ogletree Deakins has more than 950 attorneys located in 55 offices across the United States and in Europe, Canada, and Mexico. The firm represents a diverse range of clients, including many of the Fortune 50 companies in the U.S. www.ogletree.com