Legalities of stating clients you've worked for in a previous job

[Dave Buckley]

I'm just wondering whether I am legally allowed to state the names of companies that I have worked for during a previous job.

 

Having recently gone freelance I wanted to state a list of past clients on my website, but the majority of these are from my previous job.

 

Where do I stand on this?

[Pechara]

I think if you mention that you worked on these projects or for these clients while employed by your past employer, you should be ok and not be breaking any ethical bounds. I have seen that before on architects sites and its usually made clear.

[alias_marks]

I'm not sure about what's legal within this realm, but I've found a good practice is to just ask permission of your previous employers to see if it's alright to include the names of companies on your new freelance site and the work you did for them.

 

The best method I've found is to just be direct with them about what your doing. You might even find it's a good way to get in touch with some old contacts to kind of let them know what your doing now might even lead to more business

 

Would be curious to see what others have to say as well.

 

M-

[John Dollus]

not sure about the legalities but ethically I would reference the previous employer. Something like, 'as part of Company X, i had the pleasure of working with such notable firms as a,b,c'

it's misleading to simply list them as past clients. after all, your prospective clients may know someone on that list and if they call their mate up to ask abut you, what will they say?

[Dave Buckley]

Ok, so i've just spoken to my previous employer.

 

Apparently it's classed as 'misrepresentation' to just state past clients, when they are clients who you worked with from a previous employer.

 

With regards to legalities, he told me that it's not illegal on the part of the previous employer, i.e. he can't stop me stating that i worked with them whilst working for him but it might be a good idea to contact those companies listed to make sure they are ok with you attaching your name to them

[FlytE]

I would have no hesitation in putting specific clients I have done work for onto a website, regardless of who my employer was at the time. I imagine that you would have no problem listing these clients you worked for on your CV and sending it out to people, so is there really any difference?

 

Where I think it crosses the line is if you promote actual work that you did with the last employer because in alot of cases they own anything you worked on, quite possibly under contract.... or in some cases maybe the projects themselves were under a confidentiality agreement.

 

They don't own your experience though chief.

[AJLynn]

Strictly speaking you need to be very cautious in how you use images you made while an employee of some firm, because you don't own the copyright. But standard practice is you can include anything you worked on in your portfolio.

 

I've never been asked not to include items in my portfolio, except ones done under NDA, but I've always asked permission. My portfolio pages have always included the name of the project, firm it was done for, and in cases where there's distinctive design work that's not my own, a line on who the designer was and what I did. (E.g., "Design by ____; Detailing, 3D modeling and graphics by Andrew Lynn")

[eagle_ear]

the torture never stops;)

[Alex York]

Hi Dave

 

Using images is a whole different and much more tricky ballgame, but when it comes to simply mentioning clients on your site this shouldn't be a problem at all, as long as you are careful with the wording.

 

Simply stating "I worked with XYZ /on projects for XYZ client" is fine. You're not specifically stating that you were actually directly employed by that client, you're just saying you worked for them on a project, which is true. But obviously you shouldn't say "I was contracted by XYZ", because you weren't. Apart from that I don't see any issue with it at all. Any reasonable studio wouldn't have an issue with this so long as you're not trying to make it look better than it actually is. I tend to just say "I have worked with XYZ", which leaves it totally open.

 

Naturally, if you go to your previous employer and actually ask them about this they're not going to tell you it's ok. They don't want you to take business away from them. Just common sense that they'd try to discourage you, even if they shouldn't be, and probably can't stop you in a legal sense. There's nothing "immoral" about doing this either. You have a portfolio and a career that you should be able to show in detail to prospective clients in order to gain work.

 

But as I say, when it comes to images, that's a whole different matter.