Photo of Guy Whitesman

Guy E. Whitesman is an active member and the past chair of the Tax Section of The Florida Bar. He is Board Certified in Tax Law and is a past chairman of Tax Law Certification Committee which oversees the board certification process. Guy is also chair of Henderson Franklin’s Mergers & Acquisitions, Business Organizations & Planning, Tax, and Intellectual Property practice areas. He concentrates his practice in mergers and acquisitions, business organization operations and planning, taxation, estate planning and health care law.

Guy frequently writes and speaks on issues regarding taxation, business, and estate planning to members of the public, as well as to accountants and attorneys through Florida Bar sponsored continuing legal education courses.

For ten consecutive years (2006-2015), Guy has been honored by Florida Super Lawyers® magazine and was also named as one of Florida Trend Magazine's Legal Elite (2011). He was also named to Best Lawyers in America® (2013-2016), for his work in Business Organizations (including LLCs and Partnerships), Closely Held Companies and Family Businesses Law, Corporate Law, Non-Profit/Charities Law, Tax Law and Trusts and Estates law. Guy is AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell.

Experienced business leaders know how difficult and expensive it is to hire, train and retain good employees. It can take years of “on the job” training for an employee at any level to become master of their trade. Businesses invest thousands of hours and dollars in honing those skills and often do nothing to protect their most valuable asset, their people. You must take steps to protect your business up front; otherwise, former employees and contractors may be free to solicit your employees and customers or claim ownership or co-ownership in your intellectual property.

In over 30 years, I have received many calls from anxious clients regarding former employees. Do any of these statements sound familiar:

  • “What can I do, my office manager just took a job with another company and he/she is calling on all of my best employees/customers to jump ship?”
  • “What can I do, I assigned one of my employees to create a new marketing plan [product], he/she left and is claiming ownership.”
  • “What can I do? I hired a company to do [blank] for me, and now they’re using that same concept for my competitors.”

The Good NewsContinue Reading Protect the Business You Built: Company-Wide Confidentiality and Non-Solicitation Agreements