A law firm specializing in crypto taxation recently filed a trade secrets lawsuit in an Illinois US District Court. It names a competitor and a former employee as defendants, alleging misappropriation of confidential materials through YouTube videos. These include templates, client forms, and other proprietary information.
In the lawsuit, Gordon Law Group sued ex-employee Justin McCormick and his current employer, Founder’s CPA on four grounds.
McCormick’s tenure at Gordon Law spanned less than nine months, from Dec. 4, 2021 to Aug. 16, 2022. Now, he is a senior associate within the digital asset department at Founder’s CPA, an organization offering services similar to Gordon Law.
While at Gordon Law, McCormick was responsible for creating marketing and training materials for the firm, the lawsuit said.
In March 2023, he allegedly publicly shared a Google Drive folder containing confidential information belonging to Gordon Law. This information reportedly included “virtual replicas” of the firm’s processes, templates, automated converters, folder structures, and other sensitive materials.
According to Gordon Law, McCormick retained confidential spreadsheets, scripts, formulas, and electronic documents that are the proprietary property of the firm.
McCormick and Founder’s CPA didn’t return Cryptonews’ request for comment by press time.
Further, the training materials Gordon Law discovered show that McCormick and Founder’s CPA are “fully utilizing Gordon Law’s unique and secret methods and processes.”
The lawsuit provides specific examples of the alleged misappropriation of trade secrets. One instance involves a video published on the Founder’s CPA YouTube channel on May 6, 2023. Entitled “Crypto Taxes Made Easy: Setting Up Your
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