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"That's a free market": Recruitment manager argues restraints didn't apply

A recruitment company has a "sufficiently strong" case against a former business development manager who it claimed breached his contract by soliciting clients away to his new employer, the Federal Court has ruled.

Justice Michael Feutrill acknowledged the Techforce Personnel manager's claim that his contract's restraint of trade clause wasn't enforceable because its clients had contacted him, in which case "that's a free market".

But the Justice said it was "reasonably arguable that the concept of 'solicitation' is wider than initiating contact and includes conveying a willingness to deal and encouraging clients to do so"...