Electro Scientific Industries of Portland quietly settled a pair of lawsuits last fall involving a former manager at the Washington County company, enabling that manager to take a job at Vancouver’s nLight Corp., The Oregonian reported Thursday.
Longtime ESI manager Lynn Sheehan had taken a job last year at nLight, and ESI sought to block him from taking the job by citing a non-compete clause in his employment contract, The Oregonian reported last year. ESI makes laser tools and equipment for electronics manufacturers and nLight’s products are used by industry and the military and in consumer electronics.
Sheehan left ESI in March 2013, and he said the company threatened to sue him for violating the non-compete clause. Sheehan then sued ESI, maintaining that nLight was not a competitor. ESI responded with a $1 million lawsuit accusing him of taking secret company data. Leslie Johnson, a Portland attorney who represented Sheehan, told The Oregonian that the settlement did not involve any financial payments. She said Sheehan, a project manager at nLight, can work for the company with a specific assignment “for a limited period of time” and then can work without restriction for the company.
Scott Keeney, nLight’s CEO, said on Thursday that he was glad the issue had been resolved.
