If you use non-competes, make sure you complete all the steps to make them enforceable. It may be your practice to ask the employee to sign it and then not sign it yourself. While we seldom see challenges to this practice, the Alabama Supreme Court recently took an unusually close look at this issue, clarifying
Can you still have noncompete agreements with your employees? There has been a lot of buzz about this issue, and this week the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board joined the conversation with a memorandum, GC 23-08, opining that noncompete and nonsolicitation agreements violate the National Labor Relations Act. This continues a
Employment attorneys and employers are well aware that noncompete and nonsolicitation agreements have been under continued scrutiny by states across the country. While the laws vary from state to state, generally, restrictive covenant agreements have become more difficult for employers to enforce when an employee violates their agreements and “thumbs their nose” at threatened enforcement.
President Biden issued a new lengthy executive order (EO) on July 9, 2021, aimed at promoting competition in the United States. While that sounds great, everyone needs to keep in mind that this new EO also is aimed at noncompete agreements used by many employers across the country. Specifically, Section 5(g) of the EO encourages
Do you typically include a “no rehire” clause in your settlements with soon to be former employees? How about agreements with other companies that you will not “poach” each other’s employees? If your answer to either of those questions is yes, you should keep an eye on some New York legislation that could impact those
Can relationships with referral sources give rise to a legitimate business interest sufficient to enforce a non-compete? The answer is yes, at least in Florida.
A Little Helpful Background
Generally speaking, non-compete agreements (that prevent a former employee from working for your competitor) are not enforceable unless they protect an employer’s “legitimate business interest.” Non-competes
Many companies have their employees execute non-compete clauses either in employment agreements or as separate documents. The justification for doing so is to protect the company from training workers who later leave and take their new talents and the company clients to a competitor or to protect certain trade secrets. Most states restrict the terms
Employees in Alabama, like in many other places, often are required to sign employment agreements, most of which contain future restrictions on certain activities. The menu items for these agreements usually include covenants not to compete, not to solicit customers, not to poach other employees, and not to steal information (we call that committing a