The High Court has ruled that Deel’s Irish legal team may inspect a confidential agreement between Rippling and former employee Keith O’Brien, while restricting Deel itself from seeing the document unless further court permission is obtained.
Mr Justice Mark Sanfey delivered the ruling on 20 March 2026 in ongoing Commercial Court proceedings brought by People Center Inc, trading as Rippling, and Rippling Ireland Limited against O’Brien, Deel Inc and three other defendants.
Rippling alleges that O’Brien engaged in a covert course of conduct involving the disclosure of trade secrets and confidential information to Deel and that O’Brien and Deel participated in a wider scheme aimed at damaging Rippling’s reputation. Those allegations remain to be determined.
The present dispute concerned a termination agreement signed by Rippling and O’Brien on 27 March 2025, the same day as a separate cooperation agreement. Deel sought production of the full termination agreement and argued that it could be relevant to O’Brien’s credibility and his decision to cooperate with Rippling.
Rippling opposed unrestricted disclosure, saying the document concerned O’Brien’s employment termination, contained confidential personal data and had not been relied upon substantively in its pleadings.
Sanfey J found that Deel had not established a strong basis for saying the termination agreement was likely to be relevant, particularly because Deel had not put forward evidence directly challenging O’Brien’s account. However, the judge said its possible relevance could not be ruled out because the termination and cooperation agreements were executed together and might form part of the same overall arrangement.
The court therefore adopted Rippling’s proposed confidentiality arrangement. Deel’s Irish solicitors and counsel may inspect the agreement, must not disclose it to Deel or other parties, and may use it only for the Irish proceedings. If they conclude that Deel itself needs to see the document to provide proper instructions, they may return to court for permission.
A final order and costs were left for 15 April 2026.