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It's natural for executives to want to take members of their team with them to their next job, but there are right ways and wrong ways to recruit from your former employer, says executive employment lawyer Joe Ahmad of Houston's Ahmad, Zavitsanos, Anaipakos, Alavi & Mensing P.C. "Recruiting fellow employees to leave with you while you're still working for the company is not only bad form, but it's generally regarded as a breach of fiduciary duty or duty of loyalty," he says. "You simply can't maintain those duties if you're actively recruiting other employees away to a competitor." Once executives have moved to the new job, though, they are free to recruit from the former employer – assuming the employees being wooed aren't constrained by non-compete or other agreements. It's a good idea to abide by both the letter and the spirit of those agreements. "Litigation avoidance is often less about the law than it is about courtesy and conscientiousness," says Ahmad.  For more information, contact Mary Flood at 800-559-4534 or mary@androvett.com.