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Articles Posted in Trade Secrets and Restrictive Covenants

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See you on Zoom today at Noon ET to address the FTC’s noncompete ban and the DOL’s OT changes

You still have time to register (here) for The Employer Handbook Zoom Office Happy Hour, which returns today at Noon ET. My Pierson Ferdinand employment law partners, Ben Jacobs and Amy Epstein Gluck, will join me to discuss the FTC’s plan to ban most employee noncompetes and explore the Department of Labor’s proposed increase…

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Let’s have another Zoom on Monday, 4/29/24, at Noon ET to address the FTC’s noncompete ban and the DOL’s OT changes

What a week! On the same day that the Federal Trade Commission announced its plan to ban most employee noncompetes, the U.S. Department of Labor proposed increase to the salary level for EAP overtime exemptions. Employees are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime protections if…

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It’s official. The feds plan to ban most employee noncompetes. But is this fire or smoke?

In January 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposed a rule generally prohibiting employers from imposing noncompetes on their workers. In the following year and change, the federal agency received more than 26,000 comments on the proposed rule, with over 25,000 comments supporting the FTC’s proposed ban on noncompetes. Yesterday,…

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Next week, the feds will vote on whether to ban most noncompetes

Yesterday, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it would hold a “special open Commission meeting” on April 23 to vote on whether to issue a proposed final rule that would prevent most employers from enforcing noncompetes against workers. In January 2023, the FTC proposed a rule generally prohibiting employers from…

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What’s the worst that could happen to a former employee who hacks your network and lies to the feds about it?

Well, I don’t know if it’s the worst, but getting sentenced to 24 months in prison for a network intrusion and making false statements to a government agency sounds pretty bad. I was reading about this situation last night, and it sounded like something I would have blogged about before.…

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Noncompetition Agreements and Restrictive Covenants in New York

In June, the New York Senate approved this bill prohibiting noncompetition agreements and certain restrictive covenants. I wrote that the days of noncompetition agreements in New York “are as limited as the Knicks’ chances of winning another NBA title.” Oops. There are multiple reports, among them this one from Judy Greenwald…

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The “E” in injunction stands for “evidence.” (Who’s gonna tell him there’s no…)

  Ready. Fire. Aim. That’s often the approach companies take when they learn that a former employee with restrictive covenants like a noncompetition or nonsolicitation agreement has gone to work for a direct competitor. Many rush into court demanding that a judge enter a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction…

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New York is inching closer to banning non-competes

In January, the Federal Trade Commission proposed eradicating most non-competition agreements. Last month, while the National Labor Relations Board doubled down on efforts to eliminate these restrictive covenants, the State of Minnesota voted to eliminate them starting in July. Now New York is poised to become the fifth state to…

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The Labor Board’s top attorney wants to void non-competes that violate labor law. Hot take: meh.

Yesterday, National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued a memo claiming that the “proffer, maintenance, and enforcement non-compete provisions in employment contracts and severance agreements violate the National Labor Relations Act except in limited circumstances.” Other labor and employment lawyers may forebode the end for most non-competes. Me?…

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Choose your words carefully when using noncompetition agreements

  Many courts are generally reluctant to enforce noncompetes. And sometimes employers make their tasks even easier. For example, I read a state appellate court decision last night in which a company tried to enforce a three-year, thirty-mile noncompete against its former nurse practitioner that would prevent her from “provide[ing]…