As someone who worked at West Publishing and then Thompson West and its current iteration Thompson Reuters, I have some insight into why this happened. Many of

As someone who worked at West Publishing and then Thompson West and its current iteration Thompson Reuters, I have some insight into why this happened. Many of Reuters businesses are starting to face more serious competition. There was a time when Reuters owned the media business. Now smaller, more nimble companies are coming in and giving them a LOT of competition. Legal reporting is one of these areas, and Law360 has been eating into their market share in several regions. As such, Thompson goes out of its way to try and hire their help. It gives them more of an insight into what the company is doing. For years, Thompson West used to hire Lexis sales people just to find out what they were doing. Reuters still does the same thing. None of the information is confidential, but it gives Reuters a lot of information into how they train their people, the areas of law they focus on, how many reporters are on a certain beat, etc. Any kind of information they can get, they do. Of course this isn't done in a formal way, it's more off the cuff stuff you hear around the lunch table, or during an training session. Law360 probably realized this and called in their ace card - the NDA. Tie it up in court, or just hamper the reporter in trying to get a new gig and their problem is solved. This is why Law360 sent out the letter about having "critical and sensitive confidential and proprietary information". Simply out, this is a resource war, Reuters is getting beat and uses employees from other companies to gain a competitive advantage. She just got caught in the middle is all.