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Public Policy Non-Compete Agreements

Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC

Is Your Business Ready for The CHOICE Act?

What is the CHOICE Act?          On April 24, 2025, Florida state lawmakers passed the Contracts Honoring Opportunity, Investment, Confidentiality, and Economic Growth Act or CHOICE Act. The CHOICE Act is a law reforming...more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

New York Court Ruling Highlights Risks of Noncompete and Non-Solicitation Restrictions in Health Care

A federal court in New York recently allowed a lawsuit against a major anesthesia provider to proceed. The case, brought by an upstate New York hospital, claims that the anesthesia provider’s use of restrictive employment...more

Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC

SuperVision - Labor and Employment Law Insights, Issue 3, September 2024

Welcome to the fall issue of SuperVision, our labor and employment e-newsletter. In this edition, we cover the current status of the FTC’s attempts to ban noncompetes, OSHA’s proposed heat standard, how to handle political...more

Benesch

First Circuit Declines to Enforce California’s Out-of-State Noncompete Ban

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On September 26, 2024, a Boston-based federal appeals court refused to extend California’s sweeping noncompete ban to agreements that were signed outside the state and governed by another state’s law....more

Holland & Knight LLP

Holland & Knight Health Dose: July 9, 2024

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Holland & Knight Health Dose is an in-depth weekly dose of legislative and regulatory insights to keep stakeholders abreast of happenings in Washington, D.C., impacting the health sector....more

Proskauer - Law and the Workplace

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

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

Holland & Knight LLP

California's New Nationwide Focus on Noncompetition Agreements

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For decades, California has taken arguably the most pro-employee-mobility position on noncompetition and non-solicitation agreements in the country – generally, post-employment noncompetition and non-solicitation agreements...more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

Wyoming Supreme Court Eliminates the Blue Pencil Rule for Noncompete Agreements

On February 25, 2022, the Wyoming Supreme Court issued a decision prohibiting courts from revising, or “blue penciling,” noncompete agreements to be reasonable and enforceable under the law. The decision overrules the Wyoming...more

Orrick - Trade Secrets Group

The California Supreme Court Clarifies Section 16600 as Applied to Business Contracts and Holds That an Independently Wrongful Act...

The most powerful tool capable of invalidating competitive restraints under California law is Business and Professions Code section 16600. That statute states that “[e]very contract by which anyone is restrained from...more

ArentFox Schiff

Enforcing Non-Compete and Non-Solicitation Provisions in Virginia: Three Recent Takeaways From a Virginia Trial Court

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In a recent opinion, the Fairfax Circuit Court deemed unenforceable the non-compete and employee non-solicitation provisions of two doctors who had performed work for the United States Army on behalf of a government...more

Hogan Lovells

Client Alert: Virginia Court Invalidates Government Contractor’s Non-Competition and Non-Solicitation Agreement with Independent...

Hogan Lovells on

In January 2020, Judge John Tran of the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Virginia held unenforceable non-competition and non-solicitation provisions in a government contractor’s consulting agreements entered into with...more

White & Case LLP

How long is too long? Construing non-compete restrictions in shareholders’ agreements

White & Case LLP on

Non-compete restrictions for key stakeholders are common in shareholders' agreements. In Guest Services Worldwide v Shelmerdine, the Court of Appeal upheld a 12-month post-departure restriction, rejecting arguments that...more

Allen Matkins

Court Holds That An Employer May Rely On Employee's Promise Not To Compete

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In Edwards v. Arthur Andersen LLP, 44 Cal. 4th 937 (2008), the California Supreme Court held that covenants not to compete were "invalid under section 16600 in California, even if narrowly drawn, unless they fall within the...more

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

Colorado Courts Further Restrict Use of Restrictive Covenants

Dorsey & Whitney LLP on

Refusing to enforce a non-solicitation provision that violated public policy, the Colorado Court of Appeals held that parties to a non-solicitation agreement cannot contractually obligate the court to “blue pencil” the...more

Fisher Phillips

Maryland Joins the Bandwagon: Bans Noncompetes for Low-Wage Workers

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Maryland has become the latest state to revise its noncompetition law to clamp down on the practice and further restrict the types of workers permitted to be bound by such restrictive covenants. On May 25, 2019, SB 328...more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

N.C. Court of Appeals Voids Noncompete With Specialized Physician

In addition to the typical reasonableness argument and other defenses against the enforcement of employment noncompetition covenants, in some cases courts will invalidate these agreements based on a public policy argument....more

Tucker Arensberg, P.C.

Pennsylvania Superior Court Finds Contractual No-Hire Agreements Between Businesses Void Against Public Policy

The hiring of your key employees by another business that you have a relationship with — either individually or en masse — can be devastating. It is therefore not uncommon for businesses to insert provisions in contracts...more

Burr & Forman

SC body bag noncompete case exhumed, revisited

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Two years ago, we wrote about a noncompete decision in which a special referee found a business seller had breached a sales agreement by violating both a noncompete covenant and an exclusive sales provision contained in the...more

Holland & Knight LLP

Massachusetts Enacts Law on Noncompete Agreements

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• Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker recently signed into law the Massachusetts Noncompetition Agreement Act (Act), governing noncompetition agreements signed on or after Oct. 1, 2018, by employees and independent contractors...more

Fisher Phillips

California Jury Punishes Former Employees for Unfair Play-Only Lawful Competition is Sacrosanct!

Fisher Phillips on

Notwithstanding California's strong public policy in favor of lawful competitive behavior, California employees' duty of loyalty to their current employer reigns supreme. A violation of that duty can lead to costly jury...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

New Jersey Proposes to Drastically Restrict the Use of Non-Compete Agreements

Last month, the New Jersey State Senate introduced Senate Bill 3518 (the “Bill”), which, if passed, will severely restrict the use and enforceability of employee non-compete agreements in the state of New Jersey. Most...more

Payne & Fears

Recent Developments Regarding Noncompete Agreements

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There is no question that noncompete agreements in California employment contracts are generally unenforceable. Many other states, however, may enforce such agreements if they are “reasonable” in duration and geographic...more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

A Call-to-Action: Obama Administration Encourages States to Ban Noncompetes for Low-Wage Workers and Certain Other Employees

On October 25, 2016, the Obama administration released a fact sheet announcing the steps that the White House is taking to “enhance competition to benefit consumers, workers, and entrepreneurs.” The administration’s actions...more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Nevada Confirms Its Restrictive Covenant Law, But Rejects Blue Penciling

Jackson Lewis P.C. on

In the first decision to reach the Nevada Supreme Court on whether state district courts may modify or “blue pencil” non-competition agreements, the high court has concluded that doing so would violate Nevada law. Golden Road...more

Allen Matkins

Nevada Supreme Court Refuses To “Blue Pencil” Unreasonable Non-Compete

Allen Matkins on

Nevada, unlike California, applies a reasonableness test to non-compete agreements. Although the Nevada courts haven’t identified a specific heuristic to be followed, a covenant not to compete will be found to be...more

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