Partners Andrew J. Rossman, Peter H. Fountain, and Owen Roberts named "Litigators of the Week" by The American Lawyer following preliminary injunction victory for Ingersoll Rand

Congratulations to Quinn Emanuel Partners Andrew J. Rossman, Peter H. Fountain, and Owen Roberts, who have been named "Litigators of the Week" by The American Lawyer following their preliminary injunction victory for Ingersoll Rand in Ingersoll Rand, Inc., et al. v. Walker and Avantor, Inc., case number 2024CV31985, in the Second Judicial District of Colorado. This case arose from Ingersoll Rand's $2.3 billion acquisition of ILC Dover, a life sciences company.  A key component of the deal was that ILC Dover’s CEO, Corey Walker, would run the post-acquisition combined IR-ILC Dover life sciences business, and IR spent the months between signing and closing onboarding Walker with confidential information.  Two weeks after the deal closed, Walker resigned from IR to join Avantor, a competitor specifically named in the non-compete agreement he had signed as part of the acquisition. Quinn Emanuel immediately sent a cease & desist, then filed this lawsuit.

Despite a Colorado statute that renders non-competes presumptively void, last week, Denver District Court Judge Sarah B. Wallace granted Ingersoll Rand’s motion for a preliminary injunction. Following briefing and a preliminary injunction hearing with witness testimony, the Court found that Ingersoll Rand would likely win its claims that its non-compete fell within at least one statutory exception, and that Walker had violated the non-compete.  In a complete victory for our client, Judge Wallace entered an order prohibiting Walker from working for Avantor for the duration of his non-compete.

Read the AmLaw article here.
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