The pending New York action brought by Leslie Kuhn, radio personality Howard Stern’s former executive assistant, seeks declarations that a 2022 confidentiality agreement and a 2025 nondisclosure agreement are void or unenforceable. Kuhn alleges that she never signed the agreements and cites household pressures, animal-rescue operations, and questionable business and accounting practices as circumstances surrounding her February 2026 termination. Her recently amended filing values the declaratory relief at not less than $2.5 million for Commercial Division purposes. Stern and his wife deny her allegations, say she executed enforceable agreements, and have moved to dismiss and for sanctions.
Structuring the Employment Relationship
Private households and family offices should treat those who support their businesses and families, or who otherwise provide personal services, as formal employment relationships, however personal the work becomes. Identify the employer, an individual, family office or operating company, and state who may assign work. The employment agreement should address at-will status where lawful, duties, worksite or live-in terms, reporting lines, compensation and bonus terms, schedules, timekeeping and overtime, travel, expenses, leave, benefits, technology, property return, complaint procedures and termination. Material changes in location, pay, reporting lines, or household, staffing, philanthropic, or financial responsibilities should be recorded in a signed amendment. Where the principal may be the subject of a complaint, provide an alternate reporting channel through family-office management or outside counsel. Worker classification follows the actual relationship, not a 1099 label.
Drafting Enforceable Confidentiality Terms
Any confidentiality agreement should be executed before access begins, through a process that records identity, timestamps, versions, and an audit trail. Define protected categories rather than “all information”: security protocols, finances, health information, travel, credentials, household routines, private communications, and proprietary family-office records. Exclude public information, independently developed material, and general knowledge or skills. Match duration to sensitivity, reserving indefinite protection for trade secrets or information that remains genuinely private. Give the employee a signed copy and preserve the execution record.
Agreements must also preserve communications with counsel, law enforcement, regulators, and government agencies; protected reporting of suspected unlawful conduct; and other nonwaivable rights. Federal law limits pre-dispute nondisclosure and nondisparagement clauses in sexual-harassment and sexual-assault disputes. State law, including Ohio, Florida, New York, and other states regulates confidentiality in discrimination, harassment, and retaliation matters, and trade-secret provisions should include the federal whistleblower-immunity notice.
To reduce consideration disputes, pair mid-employment restrictions with an identifiable benefit, such as a raise, bonus, or promotion. At separation, document the employment record, pay earned amounts, provide separate consideration for any release, tailor confidentiality and nondisparagement terms, satisfy applicable review and revocation requirements, and establish a reference protocol. For employees entrusted with a family’s private life, careful administration is itself a privacy safeguard.
The Kuhn dispute illustrates what happens when execution, scope, and process are left unresolved. A confidentiality agreement drafted and administered with the same rigor as any commercial contract is far less likely to become the subject of litigation years later.
Contact
To discuss further, contact KJK Labor & Employment attorney Dave Campbell (JDC@kjk.com).