Wall Street Job Moves Spur Billion-Dollar Trade Secrets Fights

Jilted firms are fighting back in court when stars are poached by rivals.

Silicon Valley Bank was a relatively easy target for a talent raid because the lender was based in California, which has long restricted most non-compete agreements.

Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg
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For Silicon Valley Bank’s rescuer last year, Easter Sunday evening was a disaster.

Shortly after First Citizens Bank & Trust swept in to save the teetering California lender from oblivion, 42 members of SVB’s prized technology and life sciences departments defected en masse to a new platform at HSBC Holdings Plc — in one of the financial world’s largest talent lifts in recent memory.