Larry A. Lawson v. Spirit Aerosystems, inc.

Wichita, Kansas employment law lawyers represented the Plaintiff and Defendant in a dispute over non-compete clause in an employment contract.



After several years as CEO of Spirit, Larry Lawson was ready to retire. But Mr. Lawson had a problem: some of his compensation was tied up in unvested long-term incentive stock awards. Those awards were not immediately monetizable: Spirit 3was only obliged to deliver the value of Mr. Lawson's shares upon their vestiture, typically years after their initial award. And Mr. Lawson's employment agreement provided that his retirement would cancel the vestiture of several hundred thousand awarded but unvested shares.



Mr. Lawson promised not to compete after retiring in exchange for the opportunity to vest in stock awards that otherwise would have terminated upon his retirement.



After entering into the retirement agreement, Mr. Lawson also entered a second consultancy agreement—this one with a hedge fund. The hedge fund—which was waging a proxy campaign to take control of one of Spirit's suppliers, Arconic—

touted Mr. Lawson to Arconic's shareholders as a possible replacement CEO. Spirit deemed this arrangement a violation of the non-competition condition incorporated into the Retirement Agreement. Accordingly, Spirit stopped paying Mr. Lawson for his consulting services and terminated the extended vesting period for Mr. Lawson's stock awards.



The District Court granted Spirit's motion for summary judgment.



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Affirmed