What an employee takes when leaving a company and how this can represent a problem?

The obvious and legitimate answer is experience, knowledge, and the skills acquired over the years. However, in the digital era, the line between professional experience and the leakage of sensitive assets (such as databases, customer lists, or confidential emails) has become very blurred.

João Carminho, Managing Associate, recently authored an article analising this exact challenge: what happens when an employee moves to a competing company and how this issue goes far beyond a good employment contract.

In the article, the author highlights that protecting corporate assets requires a governance and structured management strategy based on 5 fundamental aspects:

• Appropriate clauses on confidentiality, intellectual property, and non-compete.

• Ensuring that each employee accesses only the information strictly necessary for their role.

• Preventing files from being transferred to external accounts, cloud storage, or mobile devices.

• Ensuring that access logs exist and that privileges are revoked at the right time.

• Going beyond simply handing over the computer, managing accounts, and wiping residual data from personal devices.

In short, this is a management issue that can make the difference between preventing a problem or having to litigate it in court.

You can read the full reflection at the link below.