Advantage Solutions of Irvine, California, which has an office in Rogers, obtained a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against two former executives it claimed violated confidentiality and non-solicitation agreements by trying to woo clients to their companies after leaving Advantage.
In a suit filed by attorney Marshall Ney of Friday Eldredge & Clark in Rogers, Advantage said Lee Lyles and his son Kevin “repeatedly breached” the agreements. Lee and Kevin Lyles worked for Dalton’s Club Marketing Services Inc., which Advantage acquired in June 2014.
Lee Lyles was sales manager of Club Marketing, which became a division of Advantage, before resigning in April 2017. Kevin Lyles was Club Marketing’s president before resigning April 1 of this year.
The two formed new companies, New Breed Partners Solutions and LFB LLC. But that’s no what Kevin Lyles told Advantage he was going to do.
According to the complaint, Kevin Lyles pretended that he was resigning to take a job with a client.
He even asked the client to issue him an email address, when really he was planning to go into direct competition with Advantage.
Meanwhile, the client — unnamed in the suit — said it would end its relationship with Advantage the day after Kevin Lyles’ resignation was effective. Advantage said Kevin Lyle began forwarding email from his Advantage account to his personal account during the last weeks of his employment.
The court temporarily barred the Lyleses from contacting Advantage clients, using any previously acquired confidential information or acquiring any additional information. A court hearing in Benton County has been scheduled for April 24.
For what it’s worth: Todd Hanus, the executive vice president who heads up Advantage Solutions’ Walmart team, signed off on the complaint for the plaintiff.
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