Your operations manager has been with you for seven years. You paid her $185,000 a year, plus bonuses. Last month you discovered she'd been steering your best clients to a side company her brother runs — and she's been doing it for at least eighteen months. Your first instinct is to fire her and sue for the lost business. But under New York law, you may have a far more powerful remedy: clawing back every dollar of salary and bonus you paid her during the period of disloyalty.

You discovered last week that your CFO has been steering company contracts to a side business her husband secretly owns. The kickbacks go back two years. She's still drawing a $385,000 salary, holds equity that vested last quarter, and expects her annual bonus in March. Your first instinct is to fire her — but firing doesn't claw back the money she's already pocketed. The faithless servant doctrine in New York might. If you run a business in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Long Island C

You promoted your operations director three years ago. She built relationships with your biggest clients, attended your strategy meetings, and pulled in a $280,000 salary plus bonus. Then your CFO finds an invoice trail showing she's been routing a slice of your business to a side company she set up with her husband, for nearly two years. The faithless servant doctrine in New York is one of the most powerful tools you have when this happens, and most employers have never hear