Non-Compete Agreements

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Non-compete cases that are well lawyered should be resolved early in the litigation process.  Why do I say that?  If the plaintiff is an aggressive former employer it will in most instances move for a temporary restraining order followed by an application for a temporary injunction in Texas state court.  In that process a lot of things can happen.  First, the parties will have appeared before a judge and gotten a flavor for how the judge will rule and what the judge thinks of each parties’ claims and defenses.  Second, there may be expedited discovery including document productions and depositions.  The judge may even order the case to mediation to avoid having to spend court time on a temporary injunction hearing – which is like a mini-trial.

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Continue Reading Getting Out of the Way of A Settlement

Happy New Year!

As we move into 2018 get ready for some employee movement.  We usually see less employee movement at the end of year because many employers pay out bonuses and other metric related compensation as the year ends.  The same also holds true for a company making a hiring decision – they wait. …

The usual gamut of post-employment covenants includes non-compete restrictions, non-solicitation of customer restrictions, confidentiality restrictions, and in many cases the anti-raid provision designed to keep a departing employee from hiring away a former employer’s employees and contractors.  The anti-raid is not always given a lot of thought, but it should be.  Why?  Because when…

One option we’ve never spent much time discussing here as it relates to non-competes is the buyout option – on both sides.  Buying out a non-compete is neither new nor novel.  Physician non-competes in Texas require that the non-compete provision include a buyout option.   The statute provides:

the covenant must provide for a buy

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A couple of weeks ago we wrote about the rationale behind why Texas lawyers aren’t subject to non-compete agreements.  That said, generally lawyers aren’t permitted to compete with their current law firm/employer while still employed.  That seems pretty basic.  Imagine this fact pattern pulled from the allegations from the above lawsuit:

  1. Lawyer works

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A Texas non-compete must satisfy two main components to be enforceable. The non-compete has to be ancillary to an otherwise enforceable agreement and be reasonable in time and scope. Before the Texas Supreme Court this week was a case where the court was asked to consider a non-compete without a geographical restriction and consider whether…

white hatThe details are slim from a recent article from the New York Post about a $3 million dollar non-compete/breach of contract case against a New York City hair stylist.  What we know:

  • Stylist Annie Rush worked at the salon for 6 years;
  • Apparently she is alleged to have signed a 1 year non-compete (that is

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Nobody likes non-competes except business owners/leaders trying to use them to protect their business.  It is the proverbial political softball that some legislatures attempt to address every session.  In May the Obama Administration took on non-competes and released a report entitled  “Non-Compete Agreement: Analysis of the Usage, Potential Issues, and State Responses”.  The report…