Models / Work From Past Firm
Hi All,
I recently took a job in ER and have a question regarding the legality of using work from my analyst's past firm. My analyst uses models/reports from his last firm to do work at our current firm. He is a new analyst and came to my current firm from a well known bank. Since working for him, I have noticed comments and formatting and such that is identical or even has the names of past employees(at his last firm). I am wondering if this is legal for him to do and whether he could be fired for it. Am I at risk as well? Or am will I be fine since I did not actually bring the models/work over? Thanks for your help.
Get rid of any of the obvious things (e.g. the names of past employees -- seriously?).
You'll be fine.
just to clarify, past employees made comments in the model, which has their name. But yes, this is true.
Stop being such a little bitch.
Yes it's not perfectly kosher, but it's done everywhere. If it's ER, it's not like he has ripped out a full confi'd M&A model.
A typical employment contract will state any works produced by you during the term of your employment remains the exclusive property of the firm, so it's almost certain this is a misappropriation of private intellectual property, not to mention violation of possible non-competes or NDAs. Given the nature of what you are selling (information), I would suggest you either a) immediately cease using any materials from the previous firm or b) remove all references and possible identifiers from the previous firm. Option b) is riskier, but depends on the nature of the information and how you are using it. If there is a risk the previous employer could identify the material on an official ER publication, you could be in for a world of pain.
Thanks for this. Is this something his past firm would get him on or is it something the SEC or FINRA (or another agency) would go after him on.
This is really common. ER models float around pretty freely (any buyside client can get any ER model just by asking the salesperson / analyst, to say nothing of people sending things between firms).
Normally an analyst just have their research associate copy the material over to a new excel workbook / slide deck, and scrub it for any traces of the old firm. Maybe change the formatting.
Would someone care to PM me a real ER model in case they really float that freely? I've always been curious over the level of complexity real analysts use in their models. I've been trying to build my own for a while, but I really cannot decide on the level of detail especially in predicting future years.
Greatly appreciated!
This is incredibly common. If it really bothers you, why don't you just ask him about it? And get thicker skin fast or quit. There's not a lot of intellectual honesty in ER.
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