Sheila Mason and Craig Shepherd

1. What are the most important issues confronting Sheila Mason? Explain you priority of important issues. The most important issue confronting Sheila is that her previous company, ATS, is claiming she may be in violation of her Employee Noncompetition, Nonsolicitation, Nondisclosure and Development Agreement that she signed when she was hired by the company. The day after she quit she began officially working for her own company, which ATS indicates is in direct competition with its own business. Her agreement with her former employer indicates that she cannot be involved directly or indirectly with another company for a period of one year after leaving ATS that is in competition with ATS. Mason also has another issue with the agreement she signed which states that she cannot, for one year from her termination date of her ATS employment, solicit or do business with any customer of the Company or any potential customer of the Company. So, her first hurdle is going to be to prove that her new business is in no way in competition with ATS. If she succeeds at this, she will then have to ensure that does not speak with any customers that ATS currently holds. This will significantly limit her market for initial sales of the product. Another issue confronting Mason is that she frequently uses her personal laptop for business travel and as such, she syncs her work data with her personal data. ATS, her former company, is now claiming ownership of this data and requesting that she turn it back over to the company. Within this collection of data there is likely revealing information relating to her new venture. This could give ATS all the proof they need in order to charge her with the violation of the agreement she signed with the company. This issue should be her least priority at the moment because if she is careful, she can ensure that no information relating to her new venture is ever transferred to ATS.

2. What are the most important issues