A contested chief executive departure at a listed asset manager

The chief executive resigned to join a competitor, with eleven days before the group's results announcement and a twelve-month non-competition covenant of uncertain enforceability in the relevant jurisdiction.

The board's priority was not the covenant. It was the twenty-three client relationships the departing executive was the named contact for, and the risk that a contested departure would cost more in assets than the covenant could ever protect.

We advised the board to separate the two questions. The disclosure timetable was fixed first, on legal requirements alone, and the negotiation was conducted within it rather than allowed to drive it.

On the covenant, we assessed enforceability honestly: the twelve-month period was unlikely to survive challenge, and litigating it would keep the departure in view for months. We recommended negotiating a shorter period that would be enforced rather than a longer one that would be argued about.

In parallel, our employment and corporate teams worked with the board on the client communication sequence, which began within forty-eight hours of the announcement and was led by the incoming interim executive rather than by the group's marketing function.

A nine-month restriction was agreed and observed. One approach to a client during the period was resolved by correspondence.

Ninety-seven percent of client assets were retained through the transition. A permanent appointment was made five months later.