News & Analysis as of

Non-Compete Agreements › DE Supreme Court

Non-Compete Agreements are contracts, typically formed in employment or business purchase contexts, where one party agrees to refrain from engaging in a particular line of work or pursuing business within a... more +
Non-Compete Agreements are contracts, typically formed in employment or business purchase contexts, where one party agrees to refrain from engaging in a particular line of work or pursuing business within a certain industry or locale. The purpose of these agreements is to protect employers or business purchasers from competition stemming from former employees or former owners of a business. less -
Jenner & Block

Delaware Supreme Court Reaffirms Reluctance to Blue-Pencil Overbroad Restrictive Covenants in Sunder v. Jackson

Jenner & Block on

The Delaware Supreme Court’s decision in Sunder Energy, LLV v. Jackson, No. 455, 2023, 2024 Del. LEXIS 407 (December 10, 2024) reaffirmed the courts’ limited willingness to modify or “blue-pencil” overbroad restrictive...more

Ballard Spahr LLP

Delaware Supreme Court Broadens Utility of Noncompete Enforcement Tool

Ballard Spahr LLP on

In a recent en banc decision, Delaware’s Supreme Court upheld a key tool available to employers to enforce forfeiture-for-competition provisions against former employees. Delaware’s Chancery Court has shown an increasing...more

BakerHostetler

Delaware Is an Employee Choice State - It Is Official

BakerHostetler on

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

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Freedom to Compete, But at a Cost: Delaware Signals Forfeiture Clauses Could Be a Viable Non-Compete Alternative

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

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

Foley & Lardner LLP

Complying With Recent Guidance From Delaware Courts Regarding Enforcement of Noncompetes

Foley & Lardner LLP on

In line with the national trend making noncompetes more difficult to enforce, a number of Delaware courts have recently refused to “blue pencil” overbroad noncompetition agreements and have stricken them in their entirety. As...more

Seward & Kissel LLP

Employment Litigation Roundup: December 2024

Seward & Kissel LLP on

Arizona employer cannot exclude settlement communications from former employee’s retaliation complaint - In Flores v. Rafi Law Group PLLC, the plaintiff accused her law firm employer of retaliating against her by (i)...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

Delaware Supreme Court Refuses to Enforce Noncompete Against Company Founder Who Joined Competitor

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP on

As previously reported, some Delaware courts have recently declined to “blue pencil,” i.e., modify and narrow overbroad restrictive covenants. Instead, they have stricken in their entirety covenants deemed overbroad and...more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Employment Flash - March 2024

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP on

In this issue of Employment Flash: the new DOL rule on independent contractors, SCOTUS’s unanimous Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower ruling, plus labor law developments in California, Delaware, D.C., New York, the EU, Germany and...more

BakerHostetler

Delaware Supreme Court Settles Forfeiture-for-Competition Question, Adopts Employee Choice Doctrine - Seventh Circuit Asks, ‘Are...

BakerHostetler on

Less than two months after the Delaware Supreme Court provided the employers, investment partners and other business leaders that trust in the stability of Delaware law to protect their critical business interests with the...more

Mandelbaum Barrett PC

Restrictive Covenants and Forfeiture-for-Competition Clauses

Mandelbaum Barrett PC on

A recent decision of the Delaware Supreme Court is worth noting considering how many corporations choose Delaware for their choice-of-law provision in contracts. This pro-employer decision is a welcome change to corporations...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

Delaware Supreme Court Enforces Forfeiture for Competition Provision in Partnership Agreement

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP on

In Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P. v. Ainslie, No. 162, 2023, 2024 WL 315193 (Del. Jan. 29, 2024), the Delaware Supreme Court held enforceable a “forfeiture for competition” provision in a limited partnership agreement, upholding...more

Ballard Spahr LLP

Is the Delaware Supreme Court Pushing Back on Chancery’s Suspicion of Non-Competes?

Ballard Spahr LLP on

The Delaware Court of Chancery has been increasingly willing of late to strike down non-compete covenants as overbroad, a trend accompanied by a growing unwillingness to “blue pencil” agreements by narrowing terms to what the...more

Paul Hastings LLP

Delaware Supreme Court Rejects “Reasonableness” Test for Forfeiture-for- Competition Provisions

Paul Hastings LLP on

Last week, the Delaware Supreme Court reversed a Chancery Court decision that we wrote about previously, which invalidated a forfeiture-for-competition provision as an unreasonable restraint of trade. The Ainslie et al. v....more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Delaware Supreme Court Curbs Erosion of Forfeiture-for-Competition Protections

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

Delaware has long been favored by businesses for many reasons, including its courts’ deference to parties’ ability to contract. Recently, however, the Delaware Chancery Court was seemingly less deferential to restrictive...more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Delaware Supreme Court Upholds Forfeiture-for-Competition Provision in Limited Partnership Agreement

Jackson Lewis P.C. on

Stemming a tide of Delaware decisions closely scrutinizing and refusing to enforce non-compete agreements, Delaware’s Supreme Court held that forfeiture-for-competition provisions arising out of a Delaware limited partnership...more

Proskauer - Law and the Workplace

Delaware Supreme Court Validates Forfeiture-For-Competition Provision in Unanimous Reversal of Chancery Court

Proskauer - Law and the Workplace on

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

Snell & Wilmer

Blue Pencils Down: The Recent Delaware Non-Compete Case Trifecta

Snell & Wilmer on

Over the past six months, the Delaware Court of Chancery has issued a series of decisions narrowing the scope of permissible non-compete agreements, while declining to “blue pencil” those provisions to render them...more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Which Affiliates Are Bound by Restrictive Covenants Hinges on the Language the Parties Chose, Recent Rulings Stress

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP on

In 2021, the Delaware Court of Chancery issued two decisions addressing when a contractual party’s affiliates are bound to restrictive covenants in an agreement. In the first case, Sixth Street Partners Management Company,...more

18 Results
 / 
View per page
Page: of 1

"My best business intelligence, in one easy email…"

Your first step to building a free, personalized, morning email brief covering pertinent authors and topics on JD Supra:
Sign up Log in
*By using the service, you signify your acceptance of JD Supra's Privacy Policy.
- hide
- hide