Remedies for Breach of Non-Disparagement Covenants. Any violation of the Non-disparagement Covenants set forth in paragraph 11 above shall be a material breach of the Agreement. The parties acknowledge that in the event of such a violation, it will be impracticable or extremely difficult to calculate the resulting damages and, therefore, the parties agree that upon a breach by either party of the Non-disparagement Covenant set forth in paragraph 11 above, the breaching party shall pay to the other party as liquidated damages, and not as a penalty, the sum of ​ for each such breach and each repetition thereof.

Non-Disparagement and No Cooperation. I agree that I will not, at any time in the future, make any written or oral statement that disparages or damages # the business of the Company or any affiliate of the Company (together, “Company Parties”), # any products or services of any Company Party, # any member of the board of directors or management of any Company Party or # any investor in the securities of the Company or any representative thereof. In addition, the Company will direct its directors and officers not to, at any time in the future, make or cause to be made any written or oral statement that disparages or damages me or my reputation. I agree that I will not counsel or assist any attorneys or their clients in the presentation or prosecution of any disputes, differences, grievances, claims, charges, or complaints by any third party against the Company and/or any of the other Releasee, unless under a subpoena or other court order to do so; provided that nothing in this Release shall be construed to affect my right to participate in any proceeding before a federal or state administrative agency, including, without limitation, by cooperating with any such agency’s request for information or by making any good faith report to a governmental entity concerning any act or omission that I reasonably believe constitutes a possible violation of federal or state law or making other disclosures that are protected under the anti-retaliation or whistleblower provisions of applicable federal or state law or regulation. In addition, I recognize that the Company’s business relationships with its customers, distributors, resellers and partners (collectively, “Customers and Partners”) are very important to the Company, and that if I – as an important Company representative in its dealings with Customers and Partners during the course of my employment – make any statement (directly or indirectly) to such Customers or Partners about the Company, any other Company Party, employees of any Company Party or the products or services of any Company Party that is untrue or otherwise may be harmful to the Company or any other Company Party, I will be deemed to have violated this [Section 4].

No Disparagement or Detrimental Comments. During the Employee’s employment with the Corporation and thereafter, the Employee shall not, directly or indirectly, make or publish, or cause to be made or published, any statement, observation or opinion, whether verbal or written, that criticizes, disparages, defames or otherwise impugns or reasonably may be interpreted to criticize, disparage, defame or impugn, the character, integrity or reputation of the Corporation or its products, goods, systems or services, or its current or former directors, officers, employees, agents, successors or assigns. Nothing in this [Section 5(d)] is intended or should be construed to prevent the Employee from providing truthful testimony or information to any person or entity as required by law or fiduciary duties or as may be necessary in the performance of the Employee’s duties in connection with the Employee’s employment with the Corporation.

Release - Release means a release and waiver of claims which may include, among other things and where legally permissible, confidentiality, cooperation, non-competition, non-solicitation and/or non-disparagement requirements.

This letter will also serve as a reminder of your obligations under your employment agreement with respect to confidential information, noncompetition and non-disparagement, which survive termination of your employment.

Additionally, for employees who reside in the State of Colorado at the time they execute the Agreement, including [Exhibit B], the Non-Disparagement Restriction in paragraph 6 does not apply.

To the Knowledge of the Sellers, no current or former Business Employees or any current or former consultants and independent contractors of the Business are, or are reasonably likely to be, in breach of any confidentiality, intellectual property, non-competition, non-solicitation or non-disparagement Contract as a result of providing services to the Business. Neither the Seller, any Affiliate of Seller (other than the Target Companies) nor any of the Target Companies have sought to enforce any confidentiality, intellectual property assignment, non-competition, non-solicitation or non-disparagement Contract covering a former Business Employee in the last five (5) years.

Non-Competition; Non-Solicitation; Confidentiality; Non-Disparagement. As a condition to your right to receive the payment provided in [Section 2], you agree to the covenants that follow (the “Protective Covenants”). For purposes of this [Section 5.1], the term “Company” refers to the Company Group and any and all predecessors, and any and all present, former, and future successors, assigns, parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, divisions, members, committees and/or other related companies of any of the foregoing entities, and partners, partnerships, assigns, directors, officers, managers, fiduciaries, employees, shareholders, advisors, attorneys, representatives, and agents, both in their representative and individual capacities, of any of the foregoing entities. Furthermore, for purposes of this [Section 5.1], the term “Competing Enterprise” means any business, organization, person, third party or other entity that is or has been engaged in competition with the Company with respect to any project (or with respect to any customer or bona fide prospective customer of any such project to the extent such competition relates to such project) in which the Company has at any time within the preceding five years performed any significant development efforts of which you have significant knowledge.

For purposes of this Agreement, the term “A.M. Castle’s Business” shall mean any business in which Employer or any of its subsidiaries is engaged, including, without limitation, the business of distributing specialty metals to customers within the producer durable equipment, aerospace, heavy industrial equipment, industrial goods, construction equipment, oil

Employee was formerly employed by Employer and subject to that certain Amended and Restated Employment Agreement effective ​ (“2022 Employment Agreement”) containing a: # confidential information provision in [Section 11]; # covenant not to compete in [Section 12(a)(i)]; # non-solicitation provisions in [Section 12(a)(ii)] – (iii); and # a non-disparagement provision in [Section 12(c)];