Conflict of Interest

[LondonManc]

I thought he meant perm, by the term "full time" contract.
I could well be wrong.

Ah, I see your thinking - I was thinking that he meant a normal 5pwd per week contract.

[Crossroads]

I have done this - i.e. contracted to a particular end client on one project whilst concurrently doing work for the same end client via one of their preferred consultancies on a different project.

No issues when I did it as everybody was cool with the particular setup. It wouldn't work if everyone hadn't been up front about it.

If your Company B have an issue with this then you have three options basically:
1. Pick Company A and turn down Company B. Sounds like this will cost you money.
2. Pick Company B and turn down Company A... short term loss but if you have a good relationship with Company A then maybe you won't burn bridges.
3. Negotiate with A & B so that all your work at A is done through Company B... the key issue here will be how much margin Company B want to make on you and whether you can negotiate this down as no doubt Company A won't want to pay you as much when going direct.

[Lance]

You would need to sort this out upfront with company B. As Client A is already your customer you are not poaching, but you need to have this sorted in your contract before you begin with company B, otherwise If company B were to find out they would assume you've abused your position. If you discuss it beforehand you can agree either that you work only exclusively through company B or they give you an exemption from the normal handcuff clause for this particular client. You don't necessarily need to mention the client by name in your contractual discussion with company B, but you need to be clear with them that you do have concurrent contracts with clients that they also serve.

I agree with this.
The question is 'would company B not use you if you work for client A independently?'. If they trust you not to rip them off then you'l be OK.