Score one for Merrill Lynch. The brokerage giant has clinched an early victory in its bid to stem the defection of its brokers to Morgan Stanley.

New York Supreme Court Judge Emily Jane Goodman on Tuesday issued a temporary restraining order barring James Gorman, a former top executive at Merrill and now head of Morgan Stanley's private client division, from "indirectly or directly" hiring Merrill employees, The New York Post reported.

The two firms are due back in court on March 30.

Merrill, in its brief, said the continued poaching of employees could cause "irreparable harm" because of the potential misuse of confidential information.

According to Merrill, one of Gorman's new hires, Richard Skae, had informed existing Merrill branch managers that he planned to recruit them.

Until June 2005, Gorman was president of Merrill's global private client group, managing the firm's 15,000 brokers. He joined Morgan in February after a six-month non-compete agreement.

Not long after, he hired away three senior executives from Merrill to lead the Northeast and Midwest regions.  

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