On Thursday I will be speaking at the 2015 Non-Compete Camp put on by The University of Texas School of Law. There will be a lot of great lawyers speaking on various post-employment covenant issues – https://utcle.org/conferences/NC15.
Hawaii Non-Compete Legislation
It’s always interesting to take a look at other states to see how they deal with non-compete legislation. We’ve discussed Masschusetts and most recently doctor non-competes in New Mexico. Hawaii is the latest state to enact new noncompete legislation targeting workers in a “technology business”. This is how the Hawaii legislature defined “technology business”:
5 Injunction Non-Compete Lessons
For the last few months I’ve been involved in a number of temporary restraining order/preliminary injunction cases in state and federal courts in a number of different industries/professions. Some general reminders/lessons from non-compete/non-solicit fights:
- Signed Agreements – Make sure the non-compete agreements at issue are signed. Some companies have their employees execute agreements on line
Non-Compete Legislation – The Jimmy John’s Backlash
When news of the Jimmy John’s non-compete came out last October my concern was the impact it would have on businesses with legitimate non-competes. There is always a populist theme that is anti-non-compete. Employees should be able to come and go as they please and a non-compete agreement prevents that. “Bad” non-competes undermine “good”
Mad Men Non-Competes
The much acclaimed Mad Men AMC television series is coming to an end with only a few episodes left. The partners and employees of the New York advertising firm Sterling Cooper have given us a number of employment, partnership, negotiating, and other lessons over the
Another bad non-compete bites the dust.
A few months ago we considered the Jimmy Johns non-compete that received national attention and was even the subject of a class-action lawsuit. The short of it was the non-compete applied to the nice sandwich maker that filled your order and most folks didn’t think a non-compete for those folks made sense.
Up to
Texas Non-Competes – The More Things Change…
It’s been 3 and a half years since the Marsh opinion that redefined what could constitute consideration for a Texas non-compete and courts have bee relatively quiet on non-competes since then. That’s not surprising from the Texas Supreme Court as Marsh was the third of a trilogy of opinions dealing with the subject. Appellate courts
Some Good Non-Compete Stories
A little light reading for everyone:
- Here’s an analysis of a recent Nike/Adidas dispute. Nope, not over signing the latest basketball phenom to a shoe contract. Instead, a lawsuit against several Nike designers who bolted for Adidas. Nice breakdown by Florida lawyer Jonathan Pollard. The link.
- A quick blurb on a Kentucky court’s refusal
Presentation – Tuesday, December 16th
This Tuesday at noon central I will be presenting on “Protecting Your Client from the Departing Employee”. The presentation is through West LegalEdCenter and can be streamed after the presentation date. Here is a link – https://westlegaledcenter.com/program_guide/course_detail.jsf?videoCourseId=100042157.
Respect for a Well Written Non-Compete
I really enjoyed an article about Madison, Wisconsin based Epic Systems’s non-compete agreement and the comments of those former employees who were abiding by it. There was some scuttlebutt about whether Epic was going to extend the term from 1 to 2 years. Epic is big in the healthcare IT world and its ex-employees go