PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - ERISA Forfeiture Litigation
In the recent Wigdor v Facebook Canada Ltd. and Meta Platforms, Inc., 2025 ONSC 4051 decision (the “Decision”), which has not yet been reported, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice upheld the enforceability of restricted...more
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) recently clarified the scope of the Massachusetts Noncompetition Agreement Act (MNAA). In Susan Miele v. Foundation Medicine, Inc., the SJC held the MNAA does not apply where a...more
On June 13, 2025, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) issued a significant decision in Miele v. Foundation Medicine, Inc. (SJC-13697) confirming that the Massachusetts Noncompetition Agreement Act (the “MNAA”) does...more
Although the Massachusetts Noncompetition Agreement Act expressly excludes nonsolicitation agreements from its definition of “noncompetition agreements,” the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) recently responded to a...more
On Friday, June 13, 2025, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued its decision in Miele v. Foundation Medicine, Inc., SJC-13967, holding that forfeiture clauses tied to non-solicitation agreements were definitively...more
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court just clarified that non-solicitation agreements aren’t subject to the Commonwealth’s strict noncompetition law just because they contain forfeiture provisions, handing businesses a...more
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) has ruled that a forfeiture clause triggered by a breach of a non-solicitation agreement is not a "forfeiture for competition agreement" under the Massachusetts Noncompetition...more
Imagine you’re a private equity firm. You buy a company, and you want to retain and incentivize key employees, so you give them some equity in the form of incentive units. You also want to prevent them from running off and...more
In Lawson v. Spirit AeroSystems, Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upheld the forfeiture of certain stock awards for violating a covenant not to compete. Like the Seventh Circuit in LKQ Corp. v....more
In North American Fire Ultimate Holdings, LP v. Alan Doorly, the Delaware Court of Chancery held that the restrictive covenants included in an incentive unit grant agreement were unenforceable when the units received by the...more
LKQ Corp. v. Rutledge, C.A. No. 110, 2024 (Del. Dec. 18, 2024) - In this en banc decision, the Delaware Supreme Court answered a certified question from the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit...more
In 2024, employers rushed to track the twists and turns of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) noncompete ban, which attempted to limit the enforceability of agreements that restrict employees from working for a competitor...more
On Monday, March 3, 2025, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) heard argument in Miele v. Foundation Medicine, Inc., regarding whether the Massachusetts Noncompetition Agreement Act, G. L. c. 149, § 24L (the...more
In 2021, LKQ Corporation (LKQ) filed suit against Robert Rutledge, its former plant manager, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. LKQ alleged that Rutledge’s working for a competitor within nine...more
The Delaware Supreme Court’s ruling in Cantor Fitzgerald v. Ainslie, which reversed the Court of Chancery’s 2023 finding that forfeiture-for-competition provisions should be evaluated by the same “reasonableness” standard as...more
The Delaware Supreme Court recently clarified that forfeiture-for-competition clauses under the Employee Choice Doctrine may be enforceable against a broader range of employees, including middle managers, not just...more
The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) ban on noncompetition covenants (“noncompetes”) could significantly impact the design and administration of employee benefits and executive compensation arrangements....more
FTC RULE BANS NON-COMPETE CLAUSES FOR NON-SENIOR EMPLOYEES - Non-compete clauses have long been a contentious issue in employment agreements, with concerns raised about their potential to stifle competition and limit...more
In a win for businesses that rely on restrictive covenants to protect their assets and investments, on January 29, 2024, the Delaware Supreme Court unanimously reversed a Chancery Court decision that invalidated a...more
The Delaware Chancery Court recently invalidated restrictive covenants in a limited partnership agreement, finding the covenants to be “facially overbroad” and declining to “blue pencil” those provisions. Significantly, the...more
Introduction Jimmy John’s In 2014, Emily Brunner (“Brunner”) and Caitlin Turowski (“Turowski”) filed a complaint in Illinois against the sandwich company, Jimmy John’s, and its franchise affiliates. The complaint was amended...more
In many industries, it is common to pay incentives in the form of restricted stock options payable in the future if certain conditions are satisfied. In Exxon-Mobil v. Drennen, decided on August 29, 2014, the Texas Supreme...more
On August 29, 2014, the Texas Supreme Court in Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Drennen upheld a noncompete-triggered forfeiture provision in an executive compensation plan that applied New York law. This is a landmark decision in a...more