United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit ____________ FILED April 3, 2025 No. 24-10375 Lyle W. Cayce ____________ Clerk DeWolff, Boberg & Associates Incorporated,

Plaintiff—Appellant,

versus Justin Pethick; The Randall Powers Company,

Defendants—Appellees. ______________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas USDC No. 3:20-CV-3649 ______________________________ Before Smith, Clement, and Duncan, Circuit Judges. Edith Brown Clement, Circuit Judge: In 2018, the management consulting firm DeWolff, Boberg & Associates, Inc. (DB&A) hired Justin Pethick as a regional vice president of sales. In 2020, another consulting firm, The Randall Powers Company (the Powers Co.), contacted Pethick about an employment opportunity. After Pethick accepted and began working at the Powers Co., some prospective DB&A clients hired the Powers Co. for consulting. DB&A now contends that Pethick stole its trade secrets and used them to poach clients for the Powers Co. Case: 24-10375 Document: 81-1 Page: 2 Date Filed: 04/03/2025

No. 24-10375

DB&A retained a damages expert to calculate its alleged lost profits. Pethick and the Powers Co. (collectively, Defendants) moved to exclude DB&A’s expert under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993), and they also moved for summary judgment. The district court excluded DB&A’s expert and granted summary judgment to Defendants, citing DB&A’s lack of evidence of damages. Although we have concerns about the accuracy of the district court’s Daubert analysis, we need not reach that issue because the record contains alternative grounds for summary judgment independent of the Daubert ruling. Accordingly, we AFFIRM on those alternative grounds. I. A. DB&A is a global management consulting firm founded in 1987 and headquartered in Dallas, Texas. DB&A provides consulting services to various industries such as electronics, food, manufacturing, and defense contractors. Randall Powers, a former DB&A employee, started his own management consulting business, the Powers Co., in 2008. DB&A alleged that the Powers Co. was a direct competitor. DB&A’s business consists of three phases: (1) sales and marketing, (2) analysis, and (3) operations/implementation. The sales-and-marketing phase involves DB&A’s business development representatives finding contacts at potential clients and getting them to meet with DB&A’s regional vice presidents. The regional vice presidents are then tasked with selling the potential client a two-week analysis, the second phase of DB&A’s business. During the analysis, DB&A’s team observes the client’s internal processes and identifies opportunities to improve productivity. This phase culminates in a project proposal that, if accepted, leads to the operations/implementations phase.

2 Case: 24-10375 Document: 81-1 Page: 3 Date Filed: 04/03/2025

No. 24-10375

DB&A contends that because the management consulting industry