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A court has awarded an employer $270k in damages after two of its employees left to establish their own business, in breach of their 12-month contractual restraints.

The two advisors joined Sydney-based Monarch Advisory Services in December 2018, signing agreements that included extensive post-employment restraints barring them from soliciting clients.

The contracts featured cascading restraint timeframes, which increased in line with the employees' tenure, and wide definitions of what constituted a "client". The terms barred the employees from contacting, soliciting or accepting business from the employer's clients during the defined periods, and from using its confidential information.

A director told Federal Court Justice Brigitte Markovic that the restraints were necessary to protect the employer's valuable client database...