Cadence Bank Ex-Execs Deny Stealing Secrets on Way Out Door

A pair of brothers who helped create Cadence Bank’s wealth-management division denied a lawsuit’s claims they stole trade secrets and violated their noncompete agreements when they abruptly quit last year to form a rival firm.

Former Linscomb & Williams Inc. senior executives Harold and George Williams didn’t violate “any non-compete, non-solicitation, or any other restrictive covenant” in their employment agreements, which the bank knew were “unreasonable” at the time they were signed, they said in a Monday filing answering Cadence’s suit in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas.

Cadence initially sued the Williamses last May in ...