Last week, a famous New York tattoo artist, who’s tattooed the likes of Rhianna, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, and Justin Bieber, filed a lawsuit against a former staffer, claiming she began stealing his prospects while working at his iconic NYC tattoo parlor “Bang Bang.” The owner claims he fired her after “she’d begun secretly cancelling customer’s appointments and referring them to another unspecified studio, where she’d covertly begun working.” The owner is seeking $153,859 in damages, which given that a single sleeve tattoo at his shop can cost $20,000, is really not a big sum.  

The defendant, who herself is a well-known tattoo artist with more than 600,000 followers on Instagram, said she left Bang Bang because she disagreed with the owner “about the path [her] career should take.” 

The disputes over client poaching between business owners in the beauty industry (med spas, massage salons, hair salons, tattoo parlors, etc.) and their employees are very common.  Most of the time, they do not escalate to the lawsuit level because of one of the three reasons: (1) a business owner does not know the departed Employee poached clients; (2) a business owner cannot prove that the departed employee poached clients; or (3) the former employee’s poaching of a few clients is just not worth the cost of litigation. 

The salon owners often feel that their employees benefit from being associated with the salon’s name and brand as well as the marketing campaigns that such salons often implement to attract new customers.  The owners also often train employees either personally or by sending them to various classes. The employees, however, often feel that their clients keep coming back to their salons because of their skills; not because of the brand behind them.  Both are usually right to a degree. In the beginning, a salon’s reputation and marketing can help a fledgling professional get access to a customer base, which they would never be able to reach otherwise. As an employee matures professionally and builds customer relationships, his or her clients are more likely to come back because of that employee’s particular skills rather than the salon brand. 

When an employment relationship terminates between a salon and its employees, a good non-solicitation and confidentiality agreement, combined with other key provisions, and smart business practices, can deter client poaching and preserve the relationship between the salon and its clients even in the face of its employees’ departure.  Some of the contractual provisions that can deter client poaching include the following:

Confidentiality – a strict confidentiality clause that explains to salon employees that certain information about clients is considered confidential and cannot be disclosed or used by the employees for their own benefit and/or after they leave. 

Social Media Ownership – many salons in the beauty industry now use Instagram as ways to market their services and often include the “before” and “after” photos of their clients. An employee agreement should specify who owns such images and what happens to them if the employee who performed the work and/or posted the images, leaves. 

Non-Competition – a classic non-competition clause will prohibit a former employee from working for a competitor within a certain geographic area of the salon. This area should be “reasonable” in light of the salon’s geographic reach and its clientele, and the role of the employee at the salon. 

Non-Solicitation – in addition, or instead of, a non-competition clause, salons should also have an agreement that prohibits employees from soliciting their former clients for a certain period of time after they leave. It may also need to address the social media “indirect solicitation” by former employees.  See my prior post here. 

Repayment of Training Costs – such provision in a contract allows a salon that provides a lot of training to its new hires to recover the training costs if an employee leaves before working for the salon for a certain period of time. 

Buy-Out Agreement – a salon can always include a buy out clause in the employment agreement, which will allow an employee to buy their non-compete and non-solicitation restraints if they wish to leave and continue to work in the area close to the salon or service their former clients. 

They key to drafting the above provisions is to make sure that they are reasonable, not overbroad, and clear to employees. 

In Part II, I will address what salons can do when they find out that a former employee has poached or is attempting to poach clients. 

Leiza Dolghih is a partner at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP in Dallas, Texas and a Co-Chair of the firm’s Trade Secrets and Non-Compete Disputes national practice.  Her practice includes commercial, intellectual property and employment litigation.  You can contact her directly at [email protected] or (214) 722-7108.