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Daryl Leon is an associate in the Labor & Employment Law Department. He is the administrative leader of the Firm’s Restrictive Covenants, Trade Secrets & Unfair Competition Group, and a senior member of the Employment Litigation & Arbitration practice group. Daryl devotes his practice to representing employers in federal and state litigations, arbitrations and administrative proceedings, as well as counseling clients on employment matters. His recent work has involved the representation of clients in a diverse range of industries, including financial services, media, startup technology, luxury retail, medical technology, professional sports leagues and teams and the public sector.

Daryl’s practice largely focuses on litigating and counseling clients on their restrictive covenant and trade secret employment matters and policies. He routinely prepares restrictive covenant polices for employers of all sizes, across a variety of sectors, and is experienced in litigating restrictive covenant matters from inception to conclusion. In addition, Daryl is often called upon to speak and write about the evolving restrictive covenant landscape across the country, and emerging trends.

Daryl also frequently counsels and represents employers related to claims of discrimination, harassment, whistleblowing and retaliation. Daryl has secured multiple jury verdicts and decisions in employment discrimination matters for his clients, including two defense verdicts in jury trials in the Eastern District of New York, arbitration decisions in AAA and JAMS, and a defense decision before the New York State Division of Human Rights.

Prior to joining Proskauer, Daryl was an Assistant Corporation Counsel in the Labor and Employment division of the New York City Law Department. In addition, Daryl was a judicial intern for Hon. Michael H. Dolinger, United States Magistrate Judge, Southern District of New York and Hon. Robert J. Miller, New York State Supreme Court for Kings County.

Life Sciences is an area ripe for trade secrets misappropriation litigation. In recent news, Merz Pharmaceuticals, LLC filed a lawsuit under the North Carolina Uniform Trade Secrets Act alleging that its former director of federal accounts, Andrew Thomas, stole trade secrets relating to Merz’s flagship botulinum toxin drug Xeomin®. Those secrets purportedly

On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) proposed an expansive new rule which would impose a near-complete ban on the use of non-competes (the “Proposed Rule”) by employers. The Proposed Rule is the culmination of the FTC’s recent efforts, following President Biden’s July 9, 2021 Executive Order on