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Goldman Sachs Drops Lawsuit Against Former Employees

Wendy Spires

23 February 2010

Goldman Sachs has withdrawn a lawsuit it filed last week against seven former employees from its Atlanta-based private wealth management unit over their defection to Credit Suisse Securities USA, according to reports.

Goldmans was reported to have lodged its suit last week, alleging that the former employees - David Greene, Craig Savage, Andrew Thompson, Sharran Srivatsaa, John Pitt, Stephanie Dennard and Kim Tyson - had breached the terms of their employment contracts by contacting ex-clients following their move to Credit Suisse. A court order was sought by Goldmans to bar the former employees from attempting to recruit former clients and from disclosing proprietary information.

Just days later Goldmans filed a voluntary notice of dismissal of its suit, which was without prejudice and so leaves open the option for the Wall Street bank to bring the case again in the future, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Goldmans’ original complaint claimed that Credit Suisse had offered the employees “tens of millions of dollars”, in what amounted to an act of “pirating.” Credit Suisse was not however named in the suit, reports said, although Goldmans was said to have filed an arbitration proceeding against the Swiss bank.

Goldmans confirmed that the matter had been resolved when contacted by WealthBriefing, but declined to comment further.