Harmony A. Mappes

Trade-Secret Litigation and Counseling

Whether it be customized software or critical business learnings, clients across industries have valuable trade secrets and are vulnerable to trade-secret misappropriation. Sometimes employees leave and improperly take trade secrets with them to a competitor. Other times, a business deal has gone bad and trade secrets are wrongfully exposed. For both plaintiffs and defendants, Harmony has experience litigating trade-secret disputes across these and other scenarios. Clients trust her to lead them through rapid-paced, intense, high-stakes injunction litigation. In addition to litigation, Harmony advises clients on their trade-secret protection policies and clean-room procedures.

Non-compete and Restrictive Covenant Litigation and Counseling

Harmony regularly represents employers in restrictive covenant disputes, including disputes over the enforceability and scope of non-compete and non-solicitation agreements. She has experience on both sides — seeking to enforce restrictive covenants and defending against claims that a covenant was violated. Harmony also represents clients in pre-suit investigations, and making and responding to pre-suit demands. In addition to litigation, Harmony counsels employers on their restrictive covenants and non-disclosure agreements to help them protect some of their most critical assets — talented employees, important intellectual property and key customer relationships. 

Finance Litigation

She litigates disputes between debtors and creditors and represents members of the financial services industry. Her litigation experience includes complex banking disputes, guaranty claims, fraudulent transfer claims, fraud claims, breach-of-fiduciary-duty claims and breach-of-contract claims. Harmony also has extensive experience litigating within bankruptcy proceedings — especially adversary proceedings and contested matters — where she represents financial institutions, creditors, creditor committees, trustees and corporate debtors.

Pro Bono

Harmony maintains an active pro bono practice. In recent years she co-led a team of lawyers representing voters in a high-profile voting rights case, where she successfully first-chaired the summary judgment hearing, fending off the dispositive motion before a three-judge panel in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The team went on to victory at the trial level, invalidating more than 30 state and federal legislative districts as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.