John P. Barry

Clients seek out John to litigate and provide counsel for their most important restrictive covenant, trade secret, and employment matters. He regularly assists clients with crisis or other emergent situations involving executive onboarding, departures, or misconduct; mass exoduses and raids; planned hiring of key employees from competitors; claims of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation; and incentive compensation programs, acquisitions, investments, and agreements between business partners, vendors, and customers. John is known for quickly dissecting the issues and understanding the dynamics of how a case will unfold before a judge, jury, arbitrator or administrative agency, as well as its impact on a company’s business and reputation.

He has represented companies across the industry spectrum, including financial services, private equity, hedge funds, alternative asset management funds, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, retail, and technology, among others.

John has developed a reputation as a preeminent employment lawyer. In 2026, Benchmark Litigation honored him as its nationwide “Labor & Employment Litigator of the Year.” For many years running, Benchmark has also rated him as a national “Litigation Star” and “Top 50 Labor & Employment Lawyer.” In 2023, John was recognized by National Law Journal as one of just 25 “Trailblazers” nationwide in the Employment and Discrimination Law space, based on his work developing national trade secrets and restrictive covenants expertise. In 2016, he received the Lexology Client Choice Award in the Employment & Benefits category, an accolade that recognizes law firms and partners around the world who stand apart for their excellent client care and high quality of service. Since 2013, John has continuously named him a leading employment lawyer in Chambers USA, which notes he is “super effective, fierce and smart in court,” offers “quick, efficient and concise advice,” and “has an innate sense of how to approach a case giving you the optimal chance of success, but also the interpersonal implications of the advice he provides.” Since 2008, he likewise has been top-ranked nationally as a “Leading Partner” by Legal 500 in the areas of Trade Secrets, Workplace Counseling, and Labor & Employment Disputes. John also has been recognized by Lawdragon, Best Lawyers in America, and Super Lawyers, and is a Fellow of the College of Labor & Employment Lawyers.

Notable Experience

Restrictive Covenants and Trade Secrets

John has expansive trial experience in restrictive covenant matters, encompassing cases involving non-competition, non-solicitation, confidentiality, non-disclosure, non-disparagement, judicial modification (bluepenciling) of agreements, clawback, and other remedial provisions. He has handled these issues in all 50 states and internationally, including leading a successful trial of a multi-jurisdictional dispute that is one of, if not the, largest-ever restrictive covenant cases. Some of his recent representative experience includes:

• Successfully representing the Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG) as plaintiff in high-stakes litigation in New York Supreme Court against a competitor and two former senior executives who had left IPG on the same day and subsequently hired 8 IPG employees and solicited major customers prior to Weil’s retention. Following expedited discovery and two hours of oral argument, the court granted IPG’s motion for a preliminary injunction, upholding IPG’s restrictive covenants as enforceable, finding that defendants had breached them, and preventing defendants from soliciting clients and employees for the duration of the restriction period.
• Securing a complete victory for Russell Reynolds Associates, one of the world’s leading executive recruiting firms, following expedited trial proceedings in the S.D.N.Y. that resulted in court orders that derailed efforts by departing senior executives to start a competing firm, in violation of various non-compete and non-solicit provisions in their employment and compensation contracts.
• Successfully representing a leading hotel management company in connection with asserting claims in Texas state court against its former CEO and co-founder for his forming a competitive company and solicitating our client’s customers in violation of the former executive’s restrictive covenant obligations. After securing a temporary restraining order and engaging in expedited discovery, which uncovered significant evidence of breaches, the former CEO agreed to a temporary injunction without the need for a hearing.
• Successfully representing a leading business and technology consulting firm in a number of high-stakes and high-profile restrictive covenant matters, as both plaintiff and defendant. In one, John defeated a competitor’s TRO and injunction application following the client’s hire of a senior executive from a competitor, resulting in an extremely favorable settlement that permitted the executive to work for the client. In another, John won a TRO and preliminary injunction that so significantly limited a former partner’s activities at a competitor that he could not meaningfully perform the role. In a third, John secured a complete TRO and injunction against a former partner and his new employer following oral argument, which ultimately yielded a favorable settlement that expanded the former partner’s restrictive covenants.
• Serving as lead trial counsel to a wealth management firm as claimant and counter-respondent in dozens of arbitrations arising out of the departure of former senior fee earners to different competitors.
• Serving as lead trial counsel to breast-implant manufacturer Sientra, he defeated more than a dozen TRO applications in courts around the country – including Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Texas, Colorado, and Oregon – seeking to enjoin the onboarding of dozens of sales executives from a competitor, and then won a verdict following a three-month jury trial in California state court, cementing the earlier wins. John’s advocacy helped the start-up manufacturer identify and retain the sales executives as it built up ahead of FDA approval of its chief product.
• Counseling a leading cosmetics company regarding a number of highly sensitive restrictive covenant disputes arising out of departures to or hirings from competitors of senior executives.
• Representing VantageScore Solutions in a breach of contract and trade secrets dispute in the N.D. Cal. involving a former Data Scientist who allegedly erroneously deleted and misappropriated confidential and proprietary information.
• Successfully represented Suven Pharma, Inc., an Advent portfolio company, in significant restrictive covenant litigations related to its hire of two senior executives from a competitor. John has won numerous victories in two cases in state and federal trial and appellate courts, including defeating plaintiffs’ efforts to secure injunctions in both cases.

Discrimination

John also has extensive experience counseling clients in connection with sensitive and complex claims of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, often asserted by senior executives and business leaders. He assists clients with investigating these claims, building and executing trial-ready defenses, and working to enhance corporate employment policies and procedures to avoid future litigation risk. Representative experience includes:

• Successfully serving as lead trial counsel to a global investment bank in defense of a significant gender, pregnancy, and parental discrimination lawsuit commenced by a female Managing Director arising out of the client’s decision not to promote her to partner. After winning several significant discovery decisions and significantly narrowing the scope of the case, John negotiated a highly favorable settlement for a small fraction of the plaintiff’s original demand.
• Representing a top advisory and crisis communications and PR firm in connection with potential claims threatened by a terminated partner for sex discrimination and sexual harassment, among many other claims.
• Representing a Software-as-a-Service company in defense of claims raised by a former senior executive alleging that he was unlawfully terminated, discriminated against on the basis of race and national origin, and retaliated against for raising complaints about various workplace issues. John represented the Company in a JAMS arbitration and ultimately secured a favorable settlement arrangement resolving the former employee’s claims.
• Representing a private equity fund’s portfolio company in connection with an investigation of harassment and discrimination claims lodged by the company’s former General Counsel.

Executive Retentions and Separations and Related Litigation

John works closely with company management and boards of directors to navigate executive onboarding and separations, particularly in the change of control context. Some notable experience includes:

• Representing a leading beauty and cosmetics company in connection with separating from numerous senior executives and related employment issues.
• Representing a leading consulting firm with respect to a significant dispute with a former senior partner based in Europe regarding rights and compensation under the partnership agreement.
• Counseling an entertainment technology provider regarding demands advanced by certain company executives for the payment of a bonus associated with a prior transaction.
• Counseling a digital software platform provider in connection with the separation of a senior executive who, in connection with his termination, raised claims of discrimination, retaliation and breach of contract.

Investigations

John also advises clients in connection with high-stakes and sensitive internal investigations into employee misconduct, often in situations where there are parallel regulatory or criminal investigations and attendant press scrutiny. He works with in-house counsel and other senior management to address business risks, develop exit and separation plans, and mitigate potential litigation risks. Some of his experience includes:

• Counseling a private equity fund’s portfolio company in connection with a sensitive investigation into matters and claims asserted by a former senior member of the Human Resources team.
• Advising an insurance brokerage and consulting firm in connection with governance and employment issues arising out of the filing of criminal charges against the Executive Chair of a company subsidiary by the NJ Attorney General, which made national headlines.
• Advising a publicly traded manufacturer of circuit board assemblies in an independent investigation of alleged misconduct by the company’s CEO, relating to the CEO’s use of company assets.
• Counseling a Special Committee of the Board of Directors of a confidential client in connection with an internal investigation of a whistleblower’s claims that certain executives at the client’s subsidiary and the subsidiary’s prior owner engaged in a fraud to overstate the subsidiary’s revenues prior to its sale.
• Counseling a global design-build firm with respect to a significant and confidential investigation related to the conduct of a senior executive. John was retained after the executive was arrested and imprisoned in Dubai after attending a company-sponsored event.

Other High-Stakes Litigation

Some other examples of John’s lead roles in complex employment disputes includes:

• Defending autonomous robot/logistics company Seegrid and certain board directors in a high-stakes fiduciary duty complaint attacking the company’s Stock Incentive Plan.
• Successfully defending Advent International in a $60M lawsuit brought in Colorado state court by the former CFO of an Advent portfolio company, Maxar Technologies, against Advent, Maxar, and an Advent senior executive. Plaintiff alleged that Advent and Maxar made fraudulent representations to induce plaintiff to work at Maxar, including promising him $20M in fully vested equity. Plaintiff asserted claims for breach of contract, fraudulent inducement, fraudulent concealment, fraud in employment, negligent misrepresentation, promissory estoppel, and defamation, among others. On the eve of trial, John negotiated a highly favorable settlement for a fraction of the plaintiff’s asserted damages.

Outside of his active practice, he is a noted and regular author and speaker on employment-related topics. John has been quoted by The National Law Journal, among other publications, regarding employment law and restrictive covenants. He also was honored with a 2013 Burton Award for Distinguished Legal Writing for the article, “Can An Employee Steal Social Media Influence?” which appeared in Corporate Counsel in March 2012.

John received his J.D. from Boston University School of Law and his B.A., cum laude, from Harvard University.

Prior to joining Weil, John worked at another international law firm, where he served as both Labor & Employment Law Department Operating Partner and as Co-Head of the Non-Compete and Trade Secrets Group.